MADRID, 8 May. (EUROPA PRES) –
The second vice president of the Government and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, will sign this Wednesday at noon with the general secretaries of CCOO, Unai Sordo, and UGT, Pepe Álvarez, the social dialogue agreement for the unemployment benefit reform after the approval of the union management bodies.
This was reported early this morning by both the Ministry and the unions, who spent all day yesterday analyzing the text of the reform and finalizing the last drafting details with Labor.
At the signing of the agreement, as stated in the Labor forecasts and confirmed by union sources, the employers’ associations CEOE and Cepyme will not attend. Sources from the employers’ association indicated to Europa Press this Tuesday that the subsidy reform had been more of a consultation process by the Government than a negotiation.
The unemployment benefit reform that has finally come out of the social dialogue table incorporates some new features compared to the one that Congress overthrew in January, among them new rules to be able to make unemployment benefits compatible with a job.
Specifically, this reform will make it possible to make the assistance subsidy compatible with employment for a maximum period of 180 days, without reducing the amount, or to combine the contributory benefit with a salary starting from the year in which unemployment is received.
The new reform will also maintain measures included in the previous one, such as the simplification of the administrative procedures to access the subsidy, with the elimination of the waiting month for people who have exhausted their contributory benefit and want to apply for the subsidy.
Finally, the contribution base for subsidies for people over 52 years of age will remain at 125% of the minimum interprofessional wage (SMI), compared to the reduction introduced by the first reform and which motivated Podemos’s rejection of it considering that Future pension amounts were cut.
Regarding the amounts, the improvement included in the non-validated reform is maintained in the new text that Labor has proposed to social agents, so that during the first 12 months of perception they will be established in three sections: the subsidy will be 95% from Iprem during the first six months of collection (570 euros per month with the current Iprem); 90% for the next six months (540 euros) and the current 80% for the rest of the duration of the benefit (480 euros).
The subsidy will now be accessible to people who are victims of gender or sexual violence, as well as returned emigrants, those under 45 years of age without family responsibilities, and temporary agricultural workers throughout the State (about 200,000, according to union calculations).
In addition, workers residing in Morocco who have carried out their last employment relationship in the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, covered by work authorization for cross-border workers, will be able to access unemployment protection at a contributory level without needing to prove residence in Spain. provided that they meet all the requirements established in the applicable legislation and in the conditions established by regulation.
The reform eliminates partial subsidies for those who have worked part-time, being able to collect them in full, while it will allow people with less than 12 months of contributions (which are necessary to access a contributory benefit) to access the subsidy, a measure that It will fundamentally benefit young people.
Compliance with the requirement of insufficient income will also be facilitated for people who access the subsidy, by allowing access both due to insufficient personal income and that of the family unit, alternatively, and coverage will be expanded by allowing access for married couples. done to the family unit.
At the same time, a compatibility regime is established between the agricultural subsidies of Andalusia and Extremadura with those of the General Regime and, additionally, a reduction in the actual working hours required to access the former is committed as a consequence of the drought.
The reform will also allow those who are receiving subsidies to exhaust their current benefits and, subsequently, join the Minimum Vital Income (IMV), a gateway from which victims of gender violence and returned emigrants will be excluded, who They will remain in the subsidy.
Likewise, it is introduced as a cause for suspension of the subsidy that permanent-discontinuous workers are called to restart their activity and do not return to their job, unless justified cause.
The reform will also establish a reserve mechanism for active employment policies for people over 52 years of age to allocate a part of the employment funds to these people (this year it will be about 630 million euros).
