The president of the National Federation of Self-Employed Associations (ATA) and vice president of CEOE, Lorenzo Amor, has expressed his concern about the possibility that the Government of Spain gives the green light, before the general elections on November 29, to the reform of the time registration and "promotes" other labor measures "that have not been done either through social dialogue or throughout the legislature."
In his speech at the Economic Forum of El Diario Montañés, held in Santander, Amor warned that "no one should doubt that we could find in a Council of Ministers a decree or an order developing the new time registration" and that "no one should be surprised" that in the coming weeks initiatives in labor matters that have not been implemented throughout the entire legislature are approved.
According to what he has pointed out, these decisions would be made "without the so-called social dialogue" and, in his opinion, could be detrimental to self-employed workers. Specifically, he has criticized the telematic time registration, which "is going to be a new punishment" for this group.
Amor has recalled that, if this reform were processed by Royal Decree, it would not need to be validated either by the Plenary of Congress or by the Permanent Deputation, the body responsible for safeguarding the competencies of the Chamber when the General Courts are dissolved or have concluded their mandate.
He explained that the only direct legislative function of the Permanent Deputation between legislatures is to debate and vote on the validation or repeal of the Royal Decree-Laws of "extraordinary and urgent necessity" approved by the Executive.
In the specific case of the modification of the time registration, the regulatory instrument chosen by the Government is the Royal Decree, so that, since it is not a law, it would not require any validation procedure and could move forward only with the approval of the Council of Ministers and come into force directly.
A "SOCIAL MONOLOGUE"
During his presentation, the vice president of CEOE criticized that, with the Ministry of Labor, there has not been a true social dialogue, but rather "we have lived a social monologue."
He emphasized that "the Statute of Workers has been reformed 61 times since the labor reform agreement. What face do you have when you reach an agreement or negotiate something that you are negotiating for 11 months and through the back door, via regulation, they modify the Statute of Workers 61 times?", he asserted.
ELECTIONS
Regarding the call for general elections, Amor reiterated the position he expressed on Monday, after the announcement by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to bring the elections forward to November 29.
In a message on social media, the leader of ATA celebrated the electoral advance and stated that giving the word to the citizens "was now more necessary than ever".
Amor supports the call for the polls in light of the "institutional blockage" that, he pointed out this Tuesday, keeps the legislature "fallow", with four years without approved General Budgets.
"Imagine a company or an organization like mine four years without a budget. I wouldn't be president. If the budgets are not approved for me year after year, I would have left," he asserted.
He also reproached that, in this last four-year period, "practically not a single measure for the self-employed" has been adopted, who, in his opinion, now have "less purchasing power", pay "more taxes", suffer from "terrible" social protection and endure "more contributions and more bureaucratic obstacles".
CRITICISMS OF THE NEW CONTRACTUAL MODALITY
Amor also took the opportunity during his speech to criticize the new contractual modality recently launched, due to the number of requirements it demands. "Now, to fill out a worker's contract, you have to include even the baptism record," he censured.
In this regard, he warned that this situation "annoys" a large company; makes a medium-sized one "lose competitiveness"; "screws" a small one, but "sinks" a "self-employed person".
"And this is something we have been seeing day after day, week after week, month after month, how the bureaucratic level, the level of obstacles, the level of procedures that are being demanded from the self-employed makes us spend more time and when a self-employed person spends more time, it means they spend more money," added the president of ATA.