2023-11-13 12:30:54
WORLD – During the next Spanish legislature, improving labor standards and increasing productivity will be the two main employment challenges. If re-elected, the current government plans to reform employment policies to encourage Spain’s 2.7 million unemployed to re-enter the job market.
Thursday, November 2, the first vice-president of the Spanish government, Nadia Calviño, and the Secretary of State for Employment, Joaquín Pérez Rey, stressed that some unemployed people in Spain are not motivated by the idea of returning to work while they receive benefits. In other words, these people sometimes refuse jobs because they believe that it is more beneficial to take advantage of their free time and receive benefits rather than working for a salary that does not seem sufficient to them. The latter often compare the two options and choose unemployment.
Receive 100% of your new salary as well as part of the allowance
To resolve this problem, the government plans to implement a measure recommended by the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development). This proposal aims to make unemployment benefits compatible with a salary. So a person receiving unemployment benefits and being offered a job could receive 100% of their new salary plus part of the benefit, for example 85%, during the first month.
This proportion would gradually decrease over the months until the allowances cease to be paid. For a period of time, the worker would receive both his salary and benefits, which would encourage him to take the job, because his income would be doubled. This measure aims to stimulate the recovery in employment and facilitate the transition of the unemployed to the labor market.
“Reform of the level of employment support is underway, and there is an express provision to ensure unemployment benefits are work-compatible. There are several ways to do this, but we will have to determine which is the right one. more appropriate”declared the Secretary of State.
Other proposals are currently under study, in particular the tightening of conditions leading to the loss of the right to benefit, for example by limiting the number of refusals of job offers from the public employment service. The OECD has already reported that Spain is one of the EU countries with the least strict criteria, and has recommended revising these standards in order to reduce the unemployment rate.
Low productivity and insufficient employment rate
To reduce the per capita income gap with other EU countries, Spain must not only improve its employment rates, but also increase its productivity. Ángel Gavilán, general director of economics and statistics at the Bank of Spain, highlighted that the lack of convergence in the level of income per capita with the euro zone is mainly due to two persistent weaknesses of the Spanish economy: low productivity and an insufficient employment rate.
It is essential to increase productivity in Spain, which has been stagnating for two decades, to implement measures such as increasing the minimum wage (corresponding to 1,080 euros per month in 14 payments) and reducing the working day. work that the government plans to approve through legislation.
To reduce the number of hours worked in the country, currently 40 hours per week, without causing a proportionate decline in gross domestic product (GDP), the government will need to significantly increase productivity. It is therefore important to significantly improve productivity while introducing reductions in working hours to maintain economic balance.
Nadia Calviño ruled out the possibility of a legal reduction in the maximum working time from 40 to 37.4 hours without prior negotiation with the social partners because employers are firmly opposed to it. “The government’s commitment to social dialogue is irreversible and we will continue on this path”, she assured. However, the agreement between the left parties (PSOE and Sumar) on the reduction of working hours does not explicitly consider the possibility of reaching a consensus.
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