Royal Decree-Law 7/2020 includes the following measures in the workplace:
(i) Exceptional consideration as a situation assimilated to a work accident, exclusively for the subsidy of temporary disability, of the periods of isolation or contagion of the personnel framed in the special regimes of public officials as a consequence of the virus COVID-19.
(ii) 50% discount on business contributions to Social Security for common contingencies, as well as for the concepts of joint collection of unemployment, FOGASA and professional training, for companies that generate productive activity in the months of February to June of 2020 and that they start or maintain the occupation of workers with fixed-term discontinuous contracts during said months. This bonus will be applicable from January 1 to December 31, 2020, except in the Balearic and Canary Islands where, during the months of February and March 2020, the bonus will be applied to alleviate the effects of the opening of insolvency proceedings of the Thomas Cook business group.
The text of Royal Decree-Law 7/2020 can be found here .
Employers and unions, for their part, have agreed on a document with proposals for extraordinary measures to address the labor problem caused by the coronavirus crisis and with the aim of their being negotiated at the social dialogue table. These include the following:
- The proposal for a new regulation of ERTEs that simplifies procedures and shortens resolution times. Likewise, the closure of centers and the cancellation of activities, restrictions on the mobility of people or goods, isolation to avoid contagion or lack of supplies due to public health reasons would be considered as a cause of force majeure.
- The need to regulate routes that make it possible to care for children and the elderly after the closure of schools, day centers and mobility restrictions, through new paid permits or new causes of suspension of the employment relationship whose costs, including contributions, will be borne by the extraordinary aid fund.
- Facilitate teleworking. In this regard, they propose that the obligation of companies to assess risks with the self-evaluation carried out voluntarily by the worker himself be understood to be fulfilled, on an exceptional basis.
- Workers in situations of isolation or contagion will receive a supplement of up to 100% of their remuneration charged to the extraordinary aid fund that will also bear the cost of contributions. It is considered essential to develop a procedure for processing unsubscriptions and discharges.