Spain: short-time working mechanisms extended until 31 May 2021

Following adoption by Spain’s Council of Ministers, the decree-law on the ‘reinforcement and consolidation of social measures to defend employment’ was published in the Official Bulletin on 27 January. Resulting from negotiations between the Ministry of Labor and the social partners to renew and adapt the extraordinary measures that have been taken since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the decree-law takes up the content of the ‘4th social agreement to defend employment’ that was secured between the Ministry of Labor, the CEOE and Cepyme employers' organizations, and the CCOO and UGT trade unions, and it further extends the temporary employment regulation procedures (ERTE- Expediente de Regulación Temporal de Empleo) until 31 May 2021; procedures which had been initially set up by decree on 18 March 2020 and then subsequently extended on 11 May, 26 June, and 30 September 2020. The decree law also facilitates procedures for employers with extensions automatically applying following notification to the Ministry of Labor and employee representatives.
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Maintaining the procedures in place. The three types of short-time working provided to enable companies to adapt to their environment (c.f. article No. 12156) are maintained: the ERTE force majeure, which covers the most vulnerable sectors and companies linked to the associated value chains, the ERTE for impediment to activity (forced business closure), and the ERTE for limitation of activity, intended for companies whose activity is completely or partially affected by temporary administrative

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