Lorenzo Amor considers that the data of affiliates is “inflated” and that the balance of the pandemic will be 150,000 fewer entrepreneurs while the number of losses of the group rises to 75,000 million
At the gates of a fourth wave and with considerable uncertainty about what will happen with the summer, the self-employed, one of the groups that is suffering the most from the crisis, maintain their pessimism about the future, although it is true that some data, such as billing, they reflect some improvement with the relaxation of some restrictions to the activity. But where there is no improvement is in the number of self-employed workers who foresee having to close their business in 2021 as a result of this pandemic, which remains at 300,000, and even close to 200,000 intend to withdraw from the RETA at the time the cessation of activity benefit is terminated. It represents 41% of the 470,000 that are still benefiting from this aid that ends on May 31, although everything indicates that there will be a new extension, according to the ATA barometer for April based on the responses of almost 1,800 workers per own account.
For this reason, the president of ATA, Lorenzo Amor, asked to promote as soon as possible the extension of the cessation of activity for the self-employed and seek a way out of the regulation of the ERTE. In this sense, he advanced that the proposal that they will make to the Government for the new extension will be that they establish a new aid for four months for those self-employed (200,000 according to this survey) who are already clear that they will not be able to continue with their activities and without having to continue contributing to Social Security. “Public money cannot pay social contributions for someone who is not going to continue in the activity,” defended the CEOE vice president, who assured that the only way to “unhook” these entrepreneurs are “holding on” to the cessation of activity as if it were an unemployment benefit and that they have no liquidity, it is to give them aid for four months and then see who can re-start and who cannot.
Along these lines, Amor pointed out that the numbers of RETA affiliates are “inflated” and his forecast is that the pandemic will take away some 300,000 freelancers, although with the new registrations the net loss will be lowered to 150,000-170,000.
In addition, the president of ATA, who does not believe the government’s employment forecasts, advocated that the same should be done with ERTE, since “we are aware that many companies, those that keep 750,000 workers in ERTE, do not they will continue, they will not reopen, and when before they have to clarify that situation much better. That is why he considers it necessary to sit down and talk about the restructuring of the workforce, because “many times it is better to reduce the crew to save the ship and I think the time has come.” From these words it can be deduced that the CEOE will fight again to eliminate the ban on firing in the following six months for those companies that take advantage of an ERTE.
350,000 self-employed without activity
And it is that, after a pandemic year, some 350,000 freelancers, 11.7%, still have their activity closed, although it is true that this is a figure well below the 600,000 in February, while two out of three freelancers (63.9%) have some kind of restrictions in their business and 52.2% affirm that, although it has opened, it is working at 50%. The number of entrepreneurs who are functioning normally has risen to 28.8%, five points more than a month ago, but only 1.9% admit that they are doing even better than before.
The strong impact that the pandemic has had and continues to have on their turnover is notable: 76.9% say that their business sales have been reduced compared to the previous year, when they were already worse due to the start of the pandemic at the end of the first quarter, and for six out of ten the drop has been greater than 60%. Thus, there are still a million self-employed workers (30%) whose losses exceed 30,000 euros, with which the accumulated losses by the sector thirteen months after the coronavirus broke out rise above 75,000 million euros. euros.
