Spain experienced Europe’s worst job destruction in first half of the year

Europe / Spain / 02/09/2020 / Author: Antonio Maqueda / Source: english.elpais

Old habits die hard: Spain is once again the European economy that has shed the most jobs in times of crisis. With the coronavirus pandemic still raging in many countries, job destruction in the first half of the year was nearly three times higher in Spain than in other European countries.

A strict lockdown, reliance on tourism and a high rate of temporary contracts help explain why employment decreased by around 8%.

Old habits die hard: Spain is once again the European economy that has shed the most jobs in times of crisis. With the coronavirus pandemic still raging in many countries, job destruction in the first half of the year was nearly three times higher in Spain than in other European countries.

And this figure does not take into account all the furloughed workers still under Spain’s ERTE scheme, which allows employers to temporarily send staff home or reduce their working hours. Once this state-funded job protection program ends, a clearer picture will emerge of the true impact of the coronavirus on employment. Other EU countries have introduced similar programs to combat the impact of Covid-19 on their economies.

Spanish companies have a very quick and effective way of adjusting costs: temporary workers are immediately laid off or else their contracts are not renewed

Between April and June, employment in Spain decreased by 7.5% according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. This comes on top of a 1% decline in the first quarter of the year. In other words, the number of employed persons dropped by around 8% in the first half of the year. Figures provided by Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE), meanwhile, show that the number of employed individuals fell by 1.35 million between January and June.

By way of comparison, job destruction in Germany was 1.4% in the second quarter and zero in the first, according to Eurostat. while in France it was 0.2% in the first quarter and 2.6% in the second. And the United Kingdom only lost 0.7% of its jobs despite a similar drop in economic output as Spain’s.

This can partly be explained by the fact that one in three British workers, or 10 million out of 30 million, are on the equivalent of Spain’s ERTE furlough scheme, based on August data. The UK job-retention program also includes self-employed workers and grants beneficiaries up to 80% of their wages, up to a limit of £2,500 per month (around €2,240). Employment losses were 3.1% in the Netherlands, 4.1% in Austria, 1.2% in Poland and 1.3% in Sweden. Italy has yet to provide Eurostat with its second-quarter figures.

Not like 2008

This time is not like 2008, when Spain’s overheated construction sector was forced to adjust to the real estate crash and many jobs were lost for good. This time, the thinking is that the Covid-19 pandemic is a temporary evil and that workers’ wages must be protected until it passes. The tourism sector, for instance, is banking on a return to normal visitor flows once the virus comes under control.

Spain’s ERTE system, which finds inspiration in Germany’s Kurzarbeit, was originally created by former Socialist Party (PSOE) Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to deal with the 2008 crisis. The scheme gained traction under Mariano Rajoy of the Popular Party (PP) and his 2012 labor reform. And now, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of the PSOE has rolled out the job-retention program to stem the tremendous flow of job losses triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Yet Spain continues to destroy more jobs than other neighboring countries. Spanish companies have a very quick and effective way of adjusting costs: temporary workers are immediately laid off or else their contracts are not renewed; this avoids problems with the permanent staff but has severe consequences on productivity and the social fabric of the country.

The INE’s labor force survey for the second quarter shows that two-thirds of lost jobs were temporary positions. The job-destruction rate was 2% among permanent employees and 11% among temporary workers.

But there were other factors at play. In mid-March Spain introduced the toughest lockdown in the world, as evidenced by Google’s mobility reports. This confinement triggered a 5.2% drop in economic activity in the first quarter and 18.5% between April and June. Only Britain experienced similar declines of 2% and 20.4%.

Another crucial element is the structure of Spain’s economy. Poland also has a lot of temporary workers, yet it only eliminated 1.2% of those jobs in the first half of the year. But Poland did not take such drastic measures as Spain against the coronavirus, and its economy is not as heavily dependent on tourism and entertainment – two activities that employ many temporary workers and which have been hard hit by the lockdown measures.

Temporary contracts

Over-reliance on temporary contracts has been a problem in Spain since the system was first used in the 1980s as a way to create jobs. No government has come up with an effective reform: former Labor Minister Fátima Báñez, of the PP, presented a plan that was never completed. And the Economy Ministry’s current plans for a severance-pay system based on Austria’s “backpack” model has been moved to the back burner due to the coronavirus crisis.

“Temporary contracts and short job duration are hampering young people’s ability to accumulate experience,” said Óscar Arce, the Bank of Spain’s director general for economics, at a recent presentation.

And in a recession, temporary workers who are made redundant are also cut off from full unemployment benefits, leaving them dependent on their own families for financial assistance.

English version by Susana Urra.

Source and Image:  https://english.elpais.com/spanish_news/2020-09-01/spain-experienced-europes-worst-job-destruction-in-first-half-of-the-year.html

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USA: Amazon-owned grocery chain workers stage ‘sickout’ for better safety & benefits as retail giants hit by sweeping strikes

North America/United States/05-04-2020 / Author and Source: www.rt.com

Whole Foods employees have called in sick from work en masse to demand better pay, benefits and a safer working environment amid the coronavirus outbreak. They join the Amazon and Instacart workers already on strike.

Whole Worker, a group representing employees of the Amazon-owned Whole Foods grocery chain, called for a mass “sick-out” on Tuesday demanding hazard pay for those working during the epidemic, personal protection equipment and in-store safety measures, free testing and treatment for employees, and guaranteed paid leave for all workers who are self-quarantining. They also want an immediate shutdown of any location where workers test positive for the virus and an expansion of healthcare benefits to part-time and seasonal employees.

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Demand for delivery services like those offered by Whole Foods has skyrocketed with three out of four Americans under some form of lockdown due to the coronavirus epidemic. While the grocery chain and its parent Amazon currently offer two weeks’ paid leave to anyone who has tested positive for coronavirus, that doesn’t help those who want to avoid getting sick – or the customers and fellow employees who will be infected during the incubation period before a sick worker takes note of their symptoms and gets tested. The company announced a $2 per hour hazard-pay bump earlier this month, which would remain in effect through the end of April, but has at the same time cited increased customer demand in its threats to cut benefits for employees unable to work 70 percent of peak hours.

Riley@DrylyRiley

A little reminder regarding the . These dollars were earned off the hard-working backs of these workers:

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Amazon employees are striking too, demanding safe working conditions and transparency. As many as 200 workers at a Staten Island fulfillment center walked off the job at noon on Monday, asking that the building be shuttered and sanitized – and that workers be fully compensated during that period. The lead organizer of that strike, management assistant Chris Smalls, complained management has not been forthcoming with workers about how many have tested positive for coronavirus – they will only acknowledge one case, while the real number is “at least 10,” he said on Monday.

According to a statement posted to Twitter later that day, Smalls was fired later that afternoon over the strike.

 

Make the Road NY 🦋@MaketheRoadNY

OUTRAGEOUS. Amazon just fired our member Chris Smalls, who helped organize today’s walkout to demand the company .

His statement: «Amazon would rather fire workers than face up to its total failure to do what it should to keep us…safe.»

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Make the Road NY 🦋@MaketheRoadNY

«We are walking out on @Amazon because they are lying to us, not caring about our health & safety.

There’s people sick in the building, they’re not caring about this pandemic, it’s affecting us the hardest here in NY.

They don’t care at all»

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The New York warehouse workers were joined by Amazon employees in Chicago, who also walked out on Monday demanding basic safety measures. “We don’t even have time to wash our hands!” one striking employee exclaimed. Queens warehouse employees staged a similar protest earlier this month when Amazon failed to shut down and disinfect a warehouse following an employee’s coronavirus diagnosis. At the same time, the company announced it plans to hire 100,000 new employees across the US to keep up with epidemic-fueled shopping. 

Eric Blanc@_ericblanc

Amazon workers walked out in Chicago yesterday.

Listen to them explain why.

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The upheaval at Amazon coincides with a strike by Instacart employees, who walked off the job on Monday demanding safety protections and an extra $5 per order in hazard pay. Gig Workers Collective, which organized that strike, said “at minimum thousands of workers” participated in the first day of work stoppage and called for customers to do their part by not placing orders on the platform.

The grocery-delivery service reportedly tried to head off the impending strike over the weekend by offering to provide workers with hand sanitizer and removing the “no tip” option for deliveries, as well as extending the period in which workers who test positive for coronavirus will be allowed to take paid leave. But like Amazon, it only offers two weeks of paid leave to employees who have tested positive for the virus. Workers want paid leave for those who can produce a doctors’ note attesting to a preexisting condition placing them at risk.

Gig workers like those at Instacart, which has 200,000 shoppers on its payroll, are independent contractors and thus lack basic employment protections guaranteed even to their comrades at Whole Foods. Shoppers describe a competitive, even dystopian environment where workers scramble to poach high-dollar orders and photograph other shoppers breaking protocol – bringing their kids with them on the job, for example – in order to get them fired. The company insists business is booming amid the epidemic, and announced plans last week to hire 300,000 more workers. “Over the last 72 hours, more groceries were sold on our platform than ever before,” a spokesperson told the LA Times on Monday.

The striking workers form the core of the “essential” workforce – grocery stores and delivery services are some of the few businesses allowed to stay open with most of the US under various forms of lockdown. If they walk off the job, the system grinds to a halt. Amazon may have fired one strike leader, but it can’t fire them all.

Source and Image: https://www.rt.com/usa/484606-whole-foods-strike-instacart-amazon/

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