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Click HereOriginal text for the Royal Decree-Law 10/2020 of March 29th regulating a remunerable pay permit for employed persons who do not provide essential services, in order to reduce mobility of the population in the context of the fight against Covid-19.
The Spanish workforce has been shut down for two weeks except those involved in essential services or working from home
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After a week of resisting calls for an even tighter coronavirus lockdown the Spanish government decided this weekend that more drastic measures were required in order to combat the spread of Covid-19, with the number of cases confirmed in this country having risen to 80,000 and the death toll reaching almost 7,000, and passed emergency legislation to halt all production and work activity except that related to “essential” services.
What this means is that the entire workforce, except those involved in certain services and those working from home, is being forced to take paid holiday for the next two weeks (the second of which is foreshortened due to the Easter holidays). Essentially the absence from the workplace is to be treated as time off in lieu, and the time taken is to be worked back gradually over the rest of the year by working extra days or hours. Businesses however, are obliged to pay the wages of their workers in the interim period.
Naturally, there has been a significant adverse reaction from the unions and those representing business owners who say that business is being forced to pay the cost of the coronavirus crisis.
To put it another way, the idea, according to María Jesús Montero, the Minister for Hacienda, is for the productive systems of Spain to go into hibernation for a fortnight, a move which creates great uncertainty over the future of numerous businesses throughout the country. At the same time, the Minister rejected suggestions that this decision has been made as a reaction to the figures regarding the spread of the virus being worse than had been anticipated.
Essential services
The “essential” services and activities identified by the government as being exempt from the shutdown are the following:
Dry cleaners, motor mechanics and others are also exempt, although they may operate only by prior appointment and behind closed doors: a car can be repaired, but the owner is required to deliver it and then leave the mechanics to do their work before collecting it later.
Notable absences from this list include the construction sector, which accounts for around 10 per cent of Spain’s GDP, but the decision has been made to accept the inevitable negative economic effects of such a shutdown in an effort to make the next two weeks decisive in the battle to halt the spread of Covid-19.
For most businesses the eight working days affected by the shutdown are the whole of this week (30th and 31st March and 1st, 2nd and 3rd April) and the first three days of next week (6th, 7th and 8th April). Good Friday on 10th April is a national holiday and the previous day is a holiday in most regions (although the Holy Week processions have been cancelled throughout Spain), and the hope is that by the time Easter weekend has passed the enormous pressure under which hospitals throughout the country are being place will have begun to ease.
Image: Pedro Sánchez, the President of the government, announcing the legislation on Sunday
Remember: LOCKDOWN MEANS LOCKDOWN. STAY AT HOME. STAY SAFE AND DO YOUR BIT TO REDUCE THE SPREAD OF CORONAVIRUS.
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