The President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, has obtained this Tuesday the commitment of the Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, to understand the Temporary Records of Employment Regulation (ERTE) in the Islands derived from the coronavirus crisis as long as it takes.
“This is the most important news today,” Torres said in statements to the media after the meeting with the minister took place, that “the ERTE will be extended” and “for as long as necessary” or “at least the necessary”.
That is the position that the minister would have transferred to the president of the Canary Islands and that he will defend on September 4 at the tripartite social table between the Government, unions and employers.
Regarding the extension of these ERTE, the president said that Díaz is clear that “if there are three, three; if there are six, six and if there are eight, eight” the extension months and that the situation will be turned around “when the economy in the Canary Islands improves “.
For Torres, the figure of ERTE can only be left behind if there are “circumstances of normalized activity” in the Canary Islands. But, for now, he considered “key” that “it is maintained over time.”
The Canarian president said that the Archipelago is facing “key months of the winter season” and that, therefore, we must bet on maintaining the ERTE “as long as necessary.”
In addition, Torres said that the minister also agrees that workers who have been in ERTE for more than 180 days cannot go from 70 percent of their salary so far to 50 percent , because “we cannot make the workers the slaughtered “. For all this, expect an agreement as soon as possible that can be crystallized on the same day 4 or the following week.
Finally, President Torres called for the effort of “everyone” to move forward in these complex moments: “We all need each other and, therefore, I ask the representatives of the employers and the unions […], Let us all lend a hand. I appeal to the responsibility of reaching out and separating differences “, defended the regional chief executive, also appealing to that understanding after the statements this Monday of the regional tourist employers in the Tourism Commission of the Parliament of Canary Islands, where they spoke of a tourism “in the UVI”.
