The impact of the pandemic on the job market also hits companies that employ people with intellectual disabilities or mental disorders. Almost two thirds of these Special Work Centers (CET) have seen their activity drop below 25%.
Although the majority have taken measures to avoid having to file a temporary employment regulation file (ERTE), the entities warn that without the support of the administration they will not be viable, with the risk of leaving 9,500 workers with intellectual disabilities or metal disorder without work. The associations Ammfeina and Dincat have launched this Tuesday a cry of alert because of the possibility the subsidies for their payrolls will be cut. In a joint statement, they ask the Generalitat to guarantee these grants and to pay the unpaid amounts.
In Catalonia there are more than 16,000 people with disabilities who work in 205 special work centers. Ammfeina and Dincat represent companies that essentially employ people with intellectual disabilities or mental disorders, a group of 9,500 people. The sector has long been demanding improvements in the public subsidies they receive, which in Catalonia have been frozen for 10 years. But with the crisis caused by the coronavirus, they have raised the alert, as they even see the collection of these subsidies at risk.
The Ministry of Labor announced at the last sectoral conference on employment and labor affairs that the budget for active employment policies would be cut to the communities, with the aim of reinforcing the payment of unemployment benefits after the high demand for the ERTE avalanche. The cut to the Generalitat was 55%, that is, 215 million euros. The Govern has to divide the rest between training policies and salary subsidies.
“We do not understand why active employment policies have been cut, but this does not have to imply that it affects salary subsidies,” explains Carles Campuzano, director of Dincat, who highlights the efforts of the entities to find alternatives to ERTE and keep the jobs. “We ask the Generalitat to fulfill its promise to maintain the subsidies. If we succeed, the sector will endeavor to keep the jobs, but if the subsidies fall, the sector can get into a spin ”, he adds. The associations also insist that the wage subsidy, which costs 50% of the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI), is insufficient after the government has increased it.
