The extraordinary ERTEs of the COVID-19 pandemic end this March 31, after the Government approved its last extension on February 22 through Royal Decree-Law 2/2022. The measure, which has prevented layoffs from taking place in many of the companies that saw their activity affected, comes to an end after two years in force.
In this way, as of April 1, a new scenario for the self-employed and companies that they continue to have Need to make adjustments to your templates of workers.
Legálitas details that these companies now have two posibilities. The first is the elimination of jobs through objective individual or collective dismissalsknown this last type as employment regulation file or ERE.
In any case, if companies choose this route, they must respect commitments to maintain employment that they acquired when taking advantage of the COVID-19 ERTE. Otherwise, (with exceptions) they will be forced to return the exemptions from Social Security contributions that were applied to them during the validity of these ERTEs that are now ending.
The other alternative is benefit from the new ERTE that have been designed in the labor reform which was approved last December.
The new ERTEs
With the entry into force of the labor reform, companies that want to carry out a suspension of contracts or a reduction in the working day of their employees have available, generally, two types of ERTE.
The ERTE ETOP is a file of suspension or reduction of working hours that is based on objective causes of an economic, technical, organizational or productive nature (ETOP). Its most notable feature is that does not require the approval of any labor authoritythe only thing that is needed is to communicate it.
The purpose of this ERTE is to be used as a alternative to layoffstherefore, in addition, processing time has been reduced in companies with less than 50 workers.
The other option is the ERTE due to temporary force majeure that, unlike the previous one, yes, it needs to be authorized by a labor authoritywhich must verify that the cause of force majeure to which this ERTE refers really exists.
One of the novelties that the labor reform brings with it is that, in addition to a natural force majeure, it is added as a justified cause to benefit from this type of ERTE the legal or administrative force majeure when there are limitations or impediments to the activity by decisions taken by the competent authorities, as has happened, for example, with the restrictions adopted to deal with COVID-19. These ERTE contemplate a exemption of 90% of Social Security contributions.
permanent ERTE
Beyond the previous ERTEs, the labor reform includes a type of ‘special’ ERTEthe permanent, which has been called NETWORK mechanism. It is an instrument of flexibility and stabilization of employment that, once launched by the Council of Ministerswill allow companies to benefit from ERTE under special conditions, after approval by the labor authority.
This kind of ERTE has similarities with the one that has been applied during the COVID-19 pandemic, since it is a extraordinary and urgent mechanism to alleviate cyclical or sectoral crises.