The government has already started rolling out its new social shield in the territories affected by DANA. The royal decree of this Tuesday contains several labor protection measureslike the strengthening of ERTE, but its management represents a real challenge. Additionally, they were also detected violations in the right of injured workers not to go to work.
Luis Tobajasspokesperson for the Union of Labor and Social Security Inspectors of Valencia, explains in a conversation with EL ESPAÑOL-Invertia that ERTE requests for force majeure have saturated the system. “The first day, we received around fifty ERTEs, and this continues day by day,” he emphasizes. They also receive requests for ERE due to extinction, that is to say from companies which have directly ceased to exist.
According to the latest available data, on Thursday there were 2,285 workers benefited from temporary work regulation files (ERTE) due to force majeure. In total, 164 companies requested this benefit.
But the problem is not just the quantity, but The Inspectorate must issue a report verify the cause of force majeure in each case, which slows down management.
This obligation contrasts with the management during the pandemic, when ERTEs due to force majeure were authorized without requiring inspection. “In ERTE by DANA, the inspection report is mandatory,” explains Tobajas, which creates a bottleneck.
Although the government announces that every effort has been made to ensure that aid arrives as quickly as possible, in this case those in charge on the ground do not see it the same way.
“We do not quite understand why the inspection report is mandatory in the face of said flooding and being such a clear force majeure situation“, deplores this labor inspector from the province of Valencia.
“We are absolutely saturated”he says, explaining that the workload ends up affecting other areas of the Inspectorate. The spokesperson for the inspectors emphasizes that, even if they try to distribute the work in turns, this “flow” of ERTE means that in the end, they must “disregard other service orders, other complaints” who are waiting.
Among other things, those relating to Employers require employees affected by DANA to report to worknot respecting the work measures dictated by the government. “All workers concerned have the right to stay, not to go to work and to be paid as if it were a normal day, that is, paid leave,” recalls Tobajas.
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The right not to go to work applies to victims whose mobility may affect relief efforts or who need to care for family members. In these cases, the employer is obliged to allow the worker to stay at home on paid leavewhich is not always respected, according to labor inspectors.
Businesses that fail to comply with these regulations may face sanctions ranging from 751 to 7,000 eurosbut in the event that non-compliance involves an impact on the dignity of the worker, the fine can reach 200,000 euros. “If there was any additional pressure that, for example, could harm the privacy or dignity of this worker, we would already be facing a very serious violation,” warns Tobajas.
He also points out that another situation that occurs is that of companies try to force their employees to perform cleaning tasks. “In principle, we cannot require the worker to clean,” explains Toabajas. It is the company that will have to call on a cleaning service. The only exception would be that cleaning the workplace is considered “overtime due to force majeure”, although “in any case, it must always be voluntary on the part of the worker”.
The spokesperson for the inspectors’ union emphasizes that They receive instructions to act urgently on each complaint non-respect of labor rights. “We have an instruction from management to urgently remedy any type of similar situation,” he explains. This involves issuing demands to infringing companies to remind them of their obligation to respect these rights.
However, the large number of ERTE requests for force majeure, which must be inspected one by one, added to complaints for non-compliance with the ban on going to the workplace, have generated a “saturation problem” Already in the first days of deployment of social shield.
