MADRID, 5 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Secretary of State for Labor and Social Economy, Joaquín Pérez Rey, has opened the door to evaluating the increase in the amount for those over 52 years of age who receive unemployment benefits, after this reform fell after the vote against PP, Vox and Podemos.
“The Government is willing to explore all measures that serve so that social dialogue can show its support for this reform,” said Pérez Rey when asked if the Government is willing to increase the amount of the benefit for those over 52. years receiving unemployment benefits.
The contribution of those over 52 years of age who receive unemployment benefits was the reason why Podemos rejected this reform, since the Government maintained the amount of the subsidy for those over 52 years of age, but introduced changes in the contribution that, according to the Executive, were consistent with the rise in the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI).
From Podemos, they maintained that the progressive reduction in the contribution for those over 52 years of age who receive the subsidy translated into a “cut” in their future retirement pensions and, therefore, they joined PP and Vox and voted against this reform.
When asked whether or not this point will be maintained in the new reform that has begun to be negotiated with unions and employers this Monday, Pérez Rey stated that the unions have conveyed during the Labor meeting that the issue must be discussed “in the framework of different alternatives”.
“Perhaps the one that the Government proposed in the decree law, or in the framework of an improvement in active employment policies, even in the framework of a substantial improvement in the subsidies included in the decree, therefore, it has naturally been the object of discussion,” responded the Secretary of State for Labor.
However, he stated that the unions maintain the position of the Ministry of Labor that “these overpayments cannot be treated in the same way” with a minimum wage of 700 euros as a minimum wage that is now above 1,100 euros. .
Thus, Pérez Rey has reiterated that the reduction in the contribution of those over 52 years of age who receive the subsidy is a consequence of the 54% revaluation of the SMI since 2019.
“As you know, 125% was the patch that had to be sought to prevent workers over 52 from having an enormous penalty on their retirement contributions when they lost their job at that age,” he recalled.
“EVERYTHING POSSIBLE” TO CARRY OUT THE REFORM
In relation to the deadlines, Pérez Rey has stated that “everything possible” is being done to satisfy a reform that is a commitment to the European Union and represents a “very substantial” improvement in the situation of people who are protected by the level of unemployment assistance.
The unemployment benefit reform is the last of the milestones of component 23 of the Recovery Plan that Labor has left to fulfill and is linked to the disbursement of the fourth payment of European funds, an amount that amounts to approximately 10,000 million euros.
WORK PRESENTS THE SAME TEXT
On the other hand, Pérez Rey has confirmed that the text on which negotiations have begun with unions and employers is the same as the one that did not go ahead in the vote in the Congress of Deputies for the union between Podemos, Vox and PP .
Pérez Rey has stated that unions want better protection for part-time workers; establish changes in the transition of the subsidy to the minimum vital income (IMV), for which they will work together with the Ministry of Social Security, and the recognition of the benefit to cross-border workers from Ceuta and Melilla.
In relation to the requests of the CEOE, Pérez Rey has indicated that the reform “is not to the liking” of the Spanish employers and that CEOE and Cepyme have asked Labor to review the point of the employment law in which it is obligatory to offer a “quality, indefinite and guaranteed” job to an unemployed person, something that Pérez Rey has stated that the Ministry views “with very bad eyes.”
“We are not willing to review one of the guarantees of the activity agreement that is in the employment law and that seems fundamental to us,” he stressed.
UNIONS ASK TO LINK SUBSIDY TO THE POVERTY THRESHOLD, NOT TO THE IPREM
For their part, as a way to improve the amount of subsidies, the unions have asked Labor to repeal the Public Indicator of Income with Multiple Effects (Iprem) so that the subsidies are linked to the poverty threshold and not to this indicator. whose current amount “does not even reach 50% of the minimum interprofessional salary.”
Thus, from UGT, its deputy general secretary, Fernando Luján, has denounced after the meeting with Labor that the amounts of unemployment benefits “have moved too far from the poverty thresholds”, which is why the IPREM, created 20 years ago, must disappear. years, to a new parameter, that of the poverty line, as has been done with the lowest pensions.
“It seems to us that this would be the appropriate way to set amounts that, of course, were sufficiently dignified,” stressed Luján, who added that the union will attend the meetings of this social dialogue table with a “constructive” spirit.
In relation to this issue, the Secretary of Public Policies and Social Protection of CCOO, Carlos Bravo, has recalled that this issue “is not on the negotiating table”, but that it is necessary to address it, since the IPREM has an amount of 14 % lower in real terms than what it had when it originated in 2004. “We would need to increase it by 14% for it to have the same value,” he stressed.
For his part, Luján has also claimed the need to link any benefit that a welfare regime has with active employment policies, since this “was not reflected well enough” in the reform that the Government tried to approve in Congress.
Likewise, the union has demanded that Labor provide “sufficiently effective protection” to the unemployed and provide exits and support the unemployed who are receiving benefits or subsidies in their search for a new job.
From CCOO, the Secretary of Public Policies and Social Protection, Carlos Bravo, has also conveyed to the Ministry the need to end the partiality in the amount of some subsidies, which leads people who receive them to have benefits lower than the 480 euros, a situation that the union has warned “fundamentally affects women.” He has also asked to address unemployment benefits in groups that do not have it, such as in the field of self-employment.
“Amounts, coverage, number of people protected, duration of subsidies, guarantee of non-exclusion, are the basic elements with which we approach a negotiation like this,” Bravo stressed.
