The rise in light has been primed in recent months with homes. At the beginning of 2021 the receipt was around 50 euros per month. It ended the year at 70 and in 2022 it reached 100 euros. A rise that for many becomes unsustainable. But the escalation also hits many SMEs. First it was the pandemic, which created unprecedented chaos in the economy. And now, a brutal energy crisis. With all this, solutions were necessary on the part of the Government to contain the coup. Faced with the rise in electricity prices as a result of the war in Ukraine, they resort to them again.
But of course, with Covid, companies had an easier time justifying their situation. In other words, a business that had gone through a bad patch due to an administrative decision such as limited capacity, had an easy time proving its losses. With the effects that the war has had on the economy, doing so is more complicated. However, not even the rise in light will serve as a basis for being able to do without a worker.
Forbidden to fire. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has announced that justified dismissal for reasons arising from the war in Ukraine and the current energy crisis will be prohibited. This is one of the measures that make up the labor block of the National Plan for Response to the impact of the war. From the Ministry of Labor, they recover in this way the doctrine of “prohibited firing” that it applied during the first bars of the pandemic and toughen the conditions for the dismissal of workers.
Companies will no longer be able to allege the effects of the increase in the electricity bill as objective dismissal to terminate part of their workforce. What ‘de facto’ will imply that the cost of this dismissal will rise from 20 days per year worked to 33 days, as it will be classified as inadmissible. This is how the majority of the higher courts of justice interpreted it when they had to rule on contested dismissals.
Without excuses. The measure may also include a temporary limit to the ability of companies to unilaterally modify the working conditions of their employees, in order to prevent them from lowering their salaries also alleging financial problems derived from the conflict. “This is not the time to fire, nor is it the time to lower wages,” they say.
Why? Sources from the Ministry of Labor assure that the recovery of this measure implemented during the worst moments of the pandemic is due to the fact that “it has not only served to maintain employment, but to create it.” That is why now, in a delicate situation like the current one, they have decided to implement this employment defense mechanism. All despite the fact that it is much more complicated to establish a scale by which to define in what circumstances there is truly a direct influence of the war on the economic situation of companies that present losses and want to lay off.
And yes, that means preventing rising energy costs from being a reason is the main goal. In addition, electricity has been experiencing record increases since before Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine.
Impact on aid beneficiaries. Although from Labor they recognize difficulties in delimiting that line of influence, they have established a general framework on which this prohibition will govern: public intervention. That is, those companies that benefit from the direct aid contemplated in the royal decree will not be able to do without their workers. If they do so, not only will they stop receiving them, but they must return the amount received, and, in addition, if the worker decides to go to court, they could declare the dismissal as null or unfair. In the first case, the employee would be reinstated, and in the second case, compensation would go from 20 to 33 days per year worked.
ERTEs, the other way out. Those companies that are in a delicate situation will have a range of temporary employment regulation files (ERTE) to hold on to get out of trouble. Despite the fact that in April the ERTEs due to Covid will disappear, companies that continue to be unable to function due to unforeseen reasons and beyond the employer’s control will continue to have the possibility of resorting to this modality. The same as those businesses that are affected by economic causes.
NETWORK mechanism. However, after the labor reform, the RED Employment Flexibility and Stabilization Mechanism will be the main objective of protecting companies or sectors that are particularly affected. It contemplates two modalities of new structural ERTE: in the event that it derives from cyclical effects (when a general macroeconomic situation is appreciated that advises the adoption of additional stabilization instruments), the bonuses may be extended up to a maximum of one year, and will be 60% in the first four months; 30% in the next four and 20% in the final four.
In the event that there are sectoral reasons (when permanent changes are observed in a certain sector that generate needs for retraining and professional transition processes for workers), these may be extended up to a maximum of two years, with a bonus of 40%.
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