Spain extends Covid-related temporary layoffs until March 31

The Spanish government has extended the special conditions for temporary layoffs related to Covid-19 until March 31.

The executive reached an agreement with trade unions and business associations on Monday to push the expiry date for the extraordinary regulation back four weeks, meaning that furloughed workers will continue to earn 70% of salary for half a year and 50% from then on. 

Conditions are unchanged for workers, but companies will be exempt to pay a lower percentage of the amounts due to the social security per person they are employing. 

The measure, which will be approved on Tuesday in the weekly cabinet meeting, will contribute to a transition between this scheme (ERTO in Catalan or ERTE in Spanish) and a new one (RED), which will be triggered in force majeure situations and stems from the new labor market regulation approved in early February. 

The RED scheme can last up to a year and will be first enforced to travel agency workers on Tuesday, while the rest of the employees not working temporarily will still be in the old ERTO plan until end of March. 

As of January 31, 2022, 24,425 people were furloughed with the special Covid conditions – a figure much lower than in the peak of the first lockdown in spring 2020, when over 700,000 people were temporarily out of work.