MADRID: The crisis of coronavirus is badly affecting the Spanish economy, still recovering from the 2008 financial crisis.
Since the state of emergency was declared in the country March 12, around 900,000 jobs have been lost. The effects of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Spain include 3.5 million unemployed, around 60 percent of whom are women according to the Public Service of State Employment (SEPE) and the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy.
The ministry adds that about 2 million workers have been affected by ERTE (expediente de regulación temporal de empleo), the country’s the temporary layoff plan. SEPE offices around the country are collapsing under the deluge of people seeking assistance, processing an unprecedented number of files requesting ERTEs and unemployment aid.
Ikram Khalia has been working for 10 years for a tourism company in Madrid, which has a total of 15 employees. After the national lockdown was announced, her company filed for ERTE which affected 13 employees including Ikram. “Just before the confinement we had many bookings, as we were having a good season,” Khalia said. “Once the government declared the state of emergency, all bookings were cancelled. Now I am staying home, not working and getting only 70 percent of my salary as per ERTE requirement. We hope we will get back to normal soon and people can travel again.”
ERTE allows companies to temporarily lay off staff or cut working hours, while allowing them to claim unemployment benefits. Companies must inform workers of the ERTE request and then submit an application. The workers’ contracts are not terminated, but rather temporarily suspended, and they are entitled to 70 percent of their base salary for the first six months, and 50 percent from the seventh month.
Some companies ask their employees to voluntarily reduce their working hours instead of applying for ERTE, especially if they can work from home. Juan Manuel Llamero, a technical account manager in Madrid, was asked along with his colleagues to reduce their working hours and salary up to 20 percent.
“Most of us accepted the company’s suggestion as we don’t want to lose our jobs — this way the company can still pay our salaries,” he said. “Now we work fewer hours from home. We need to be more cautious in our spending as we don’t know how long this situation will last.”
His wife, Cristina Rubio, has two jobs, one in the mornings at a school and another one giving support to children with special needs in the afternoons. “The school has filed for an ERTE since classes are suspended. I don’t work in the mornings anymore and I don’t know if my contract will be renewed after the school year concludes, supposedly in June. I still work at my other part time job, but it is very challenging, since we have to give online support to students with mental disabilities and are living in social difficulties,” she said.
“Most of them don’t have electronic devices or internet connection. There is a digital gap in Spain that we didn’t overseen. Eventually I will have to ask for unemployment benefits to survive if I lose my jobs,” she added.
Self-employed people are also being affected by COVID-19. There are around 3.2 million of them in Spain, and the government is providing financial aid to those who have no income now and filed for help. According to the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations, over a million self-employed people will receive help from the end of April for a duration of 47 days. In March, 900,000 self-employed people received aid from the government.
Eduardo Segovia has been self-employed for 30 years in the clothing industry. “I distribute baby clothing to more than 80 clients all over Madrid,” he said. “We were stable before, but now that all malls and stores are closed, we have zero income. We know that we will slowly recover; people need to fight to overcome this situation and hold on until we are back to normal, that’s our hope.”
