The second vice-president and advisor for Economy, Labor and Employment, Michael Torresconsidered “interesting” the proposal of create a new “flexible” sick leave this allows us to work partially, but with “maximum legal certainty”. He thus shares the idea launched by the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saizand party colleague, who rejects the Minister of Labor, Yolande Diaz. Torres presented the economic forecasts for Euskadi for this year and next year, with growth of the Basque economy of 1.9% in 2024 and 2.1% in 2025.
In an interview with ‘Radio Euskadi’, Torres supported Minister Elma Saiz’s announcement to address a sick leave reformthose defined as temporary incapacity, to give more flexibility when returning to work in certain cases and always on the basis of “voluntariness and the guarantee of health and safety”.
Torres considered “new” the fact that a person can return to work during a work stoppage and likened it to flexible retirementwhich, as he recalled, makes retirement compatible with working a series of hours.
According to him, it is a measure which ““We must study at the social dialogue table at the state level”. “This seems new to me, but with all the legal certainty that should be given so that people have the right to be on sick leave if a doctor deems it so,” he insisted.
Regarding the refusal of the Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, of flexible sick leave because “we are not playing with health”, Torres insisted that “this could be an interesting measure, while reiterating that “The important thing is to maintain the legal security of the worker who is on sick leave and never violate their rights.
Forecast maintenance
On the other hand, the Basque Government maintains its growth forecasts for the Basque economy. 1.9% in 2024 and 2.1% in 2025but delays by one year the objective of an unemployment rate of 6.8%, to 2026. Concretely, for next year, they estimate the creation of 15,000 jobs, which will bring the unemployment rate to 7 %. This was announced by the second vice president, during a press conference in Bilbao during which he presented the quarterly report on the Basque economy for the third quarter of 2024 and the economic growth forecasts for 2024 and 2025.
Mikel Torres highlighted that these estimates of GDP growth of 1.9% this year and 2.1% in 2025 They project “a macroeconomic scenario of stability”. These forecasts imply the maintenance of those included in the budgetary guidelines approved in July, even if those for employment vary, since they anticipated the creation of around 16,000 jobs and the setting of the unemployment rate at 6.8% in 2025 .
After emphasizing that the Basque labor market is stable and continues to grow, they highlighted that the new estimate indicates that around 15,000 full-time equivalent positions will be created in 2025, which represents an increase of 1.5%, placing the unemployed employment rate to 7% and finally decrease to 6.8% in 2026. This variation in employment forecasts, as they explained, is driven by the increase in the number of people entering Lanbidethe Basque employment service, which “delayed the objectives a little”.
