Over half a million laid-off people may lack 'recognized unemployment,' says Catalan government

Over half a million people subject to temporary redundancy proceedings "may not have recognized unemployment" due to the "absolute collapse" of the state public employment service, says secretary-general of the Catalan labor department, Josep Ginesta.

With 694,000 Catalans included in temporary lay-off schemes due to the coronavirus crisis, Ginesta called on the state authorities to make changes so as to ensure that as many people as possible receive the unemployment benefit in May.

The labor department estimates that just over 100,000 workers who have been temporarily laid off and who qualify for unemployment received the benefit in early April, based on data from the Spanish labor ministry, which said 15% of those affected by temporary redundancy schemes in Spain had received the payment.

Ginesta also said that not only are people who have to process their unemployment themselves having difficulties but that companies are also having problems making the collective application, a procedure that was enabled to speed up deadlines. 

"When you place a right, you have to be able to fulfill it," said Ginesta, who took the opportunity to point out that domestic workers are also not receiving the extraordinary unemployment benefit enabled by the Spanish government.

Criticism from the unions

However, the Catalan government's proposal to offer 200 euros to unemployed people who have not yet received the unemployment benefit came in for criticism from the two largest trade unions in Catalonia, the UGT and CCOO.

The heads of both unions on Monday called the measure "wrong" and said it showed "ignorance" of the economic impact of the Covid-19 crisis on Catalan society, pointing out that there are other people who have no state aid at all. 

Asked about the views of the unions, Ginesta said that "any criticism is legitimate" but he defended his department's decision, saying thousands of workers affected by temporary lay-offs face "severe material needs."

Unemployment rate up in first quarter

The unemployment rate in Catalonia rose to 10.66% at the end of the first quarter of 2020, up from 10.4% at the end of 2019, with the number of people without work going up by 5,800 to 411,600, according to Spain's statistics institute's labor force survey.

While the data shows the beginning of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, they do not count the 694,000 temporary lay-offs. In Spain as a whole, unemployment rose by 121,000 people in the same period, up to 3.3 million, with the rate standing at 14.41%.