Telefónica's Employment Regulation File (ERE) will affect some 5,100 jobs in the company's three companies in Spain, as reported this Monday by union sources after the first meeting to establish negotiating tables.

This Monday the constitution of the negotiation tables of the three legal entities of Telefónica in Spain – Telefónica Móviles, Telefónica Soluciones and Telefónica España – was completed, where some 16,000 people work.

After the formation of the tables, the unions point out that the company has proposed a total of 5,124 dismissals until 2026, and that the measure is planned for people born in 1968 and previous years, with a minimum seniority of 15 years.

Specifically, the initial proposal that the company has conveyed to the unions is 81 layoffs in Telefónica Soluciones, 958 in Telefónica Móviles and 4,085 in Telefónica de España.

In this context, Telefónica has linked the voluntary nature of the collective dismissal to reaching the figures desired by the company, although these may vary throughout the negotiation process.. “The company indicates that if voluntariness does not achieve the output figures they want, well…. which we will see,” a Sumados-Fetico spokesperson told Europa Press, who also explained that Telefónica has justified the need for this collective dismissal for “organizational reasons.”

In this sense, CC OO has indicated in a statement that within the framework of the ERE conversations, other issues such as its universality will also be addressed, in addition to economic and social conditions and that it is linked to retirement.. “The company proposes a 'functional surplus' caused by technological changes, market needs and other causes that are included in the mandatory report that will justify its decision and that we will analyze in detail,” added CC OO.

Despite this context, the union has stated that “it is time to value the staff” of Telefónica, given that they are in a “constant state of adaptation” due to “commitment, responsibility and professionalism.”

“Today, negotiation tables have been formally established in Telefónica de España, Telefónica Móviles España and Telefónica Soluciones. Within this framework, the company has communicated to the different worker representatives the adjustment corresponding to each of these companies to adapt them to the demanding process of transformation and adaptation required by the new digital era,” Telefónica indicated for its part.

Staff in Galicia

In Galicia, the workforce is made up of about 600 people and last week they were “expectant” after the company announced its intention to apply this ERE.

According to the numbers of the head of Communications at FESMC UGT Galicia, José Ramón Vizcaíno, a Telefónica worker, the company's employees in the Galician community are currently 573: in Lugo 44 and also 44 in Ourense, 321 in A Coruña and 164 in Pontevedra.

For his part, fellow worker and CIG representative Henrique Vieitez manages similar staff numbers: 41 in Lugo, 44 in Ourense, 318 in A Coruña and 197 in Pontevedra, which puts the total at 600.

The province of Pontevedra, which once had more than a thousand employees, has stood out – at the state level – for small percentages of acceptance of regulation files or individual suspension plans.

The last ERE that Telefónica raised occurred in 2011, when it laid off more than 6,000 employees, a measure that caused a change in legislation.

Reach the peak of fossil fuel consumption in 2025 and from then on begin to “strongly” cut their use, starting with the subsidies that governments give to gas or oil. This position, which the Government defends like a mantra at the COP28 in Dubai, contains very concrete measures, which have served to moderate electricity bills and especially gas bills in the last two years of energy price crisis.. Subsidies are the regulated gas rate (TUR), fuel discounts, the thermal bonus or, “by default”, the VAT reduction on gas and, in a more complicated way to calculate, electricity.. The Government has just one month to decide whether to extend them for next year and also whether to ask Brussels again for a new extension of the Iberian mechanism. If it does not continue, there will be millionaire savings in the public budget but also an obvious social cost for eliminating aid that today buoys many domestic budgets.

According to a study by the Renovables Foundation and the Institute of Applied Ecology, if we take into account the significant disbursements that EU countries have made to help households in the energy crisis, Spain would need to disburse 1.5 billion a year to help them cover only a third of your additional energy costs. If prices returned to their maximum in 2022, the cost would be even higher, 4 billion per year.

For now, last year the Government approved an extraordinary credit of 3,000 million from the General State Budgets to cover the cost of the regulated gas rate, the Last Resort Rate (TUR) by which, whether to households individuals and small businesses or neighborhood communities, maintains a fixed price that is cheaper than the market price, which is only reviewed – up or down – every three months if the variation in the real price is more than 2%.

Directly reflected in the bill is also the thermal bonus, an annual payment for the payment of hot water in the most vulnerable homes that was created in 2018 to accompany the electricity bonus and which increased its endowment last year, with a budget of 75 million .

The neighborhood TUR was an extraordinary measure for the energy crisis that, if there is no decision to the contrary, will expire on December 31, while the Government promised months ago to review the income criteria of large families that receive electricity and thermal bonuses.

Depending on income

Redirect these and other energy aid to the groups that need it most, with a lower level of income. It is the way in which Greenpeaceo or the Renovables Foundation consider that it is the only way to justify their survival, an idea that also spreads in the Government in the face of imminent decisions in this area.. “That they are proportional and take into account income and national distribution. A subsidy for those in the south with 10 or 15 degrees is not the same as those in the north with zero degrees,” says Ismael Morales.. Head of Communication and Climate Policy at the Renovables Foundation. Aid today is “very inefficient, because it goes to all types of income, to people who can afford it and who cannot,” adds the coordinator of Greenpeace's Fossil Fuels campaign, Francisco del Pozo.

Other extraordinary measures are also under review, such as the discount on the liter of gasoline or diesel that started at 20 cents provided by the Government – plus another ten that some companies contributed – per liter of fuel that any driver refueled to go progressively, until the current discount of 10 euro cents only for temporary transport.

In the same way, it remains to be seen if the Government remains uncertain about whether it will extend the VAT reduction on electricity and gas beyond 2023, which went from 21 to 5%.. Although this does not represent a public contribution to cover part of the price of gas, it is aid “by omission”, that is, because the State stops levying taxes on it.

Asked about these two questions a few days ago in an interview on TVE, the president, Pedro Sánchez, did not reveal what the final decision will be, although he pointed out the possibility of modifying some of these instruments, in line with the idea that his third vice president and minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, has slipped on other occasions from maintaining subsidies for the most vulnerable sectors, in line with what Greenpeace or the Renovables Foundation defend.

“We are going to speak with the affected sectors, also with the transporters and with the [Congressional] groups because the coalition government has a parliamentary minority and we will try to address the most urgent needs but adapt them to a situation, fortunately, that is not the same as last year. two years,” when skyrocketing energy prices pushed inflation above 10%, Sánchez said.

The Renovables Foundation also demands an end to tax breaks on kerosene and Greenpeace, an end to the regulated butane rate, and other instruments to support households, but also to the fossil fuel industry.

Extension of the Iberian mechanism

More mysterious is the Government's position regarding a possible new extension of the Iberian mechanism, the cap on gas to generate electricity that in the worst of the crisis managed to contain prices, but which also increased the use of natural gas in Spain – to a large extent, because exports to Portugal and France were also much higher than usual – and it meant transferring billions to combined cycle plants, to electricity plants for generating electricity with gas. Although it has not been activated since February, the current extension expires on December 31 and the Government must decide whether to request another. In theory, it has the wind in its favor, with the Commission extending other emergency measures due to the energy crisis – such as the 180 euro cap, which was never activated – and Ribera assured a few weeks ago that she was in favor of extending it “until necessary” or even that she would defend it in the Energy Council as semi-annual president. However, the Ministry has since assured that the decision has not yet been made.

The Iberian exception is another gas subsidy for which the European Commission calculated a cost of 6.3 billion when authorizing state aid for that amount in March 2022.. They were not disbursed by the State -via budgets, such as the thermal bonus, for example- because the Government decided that the compensation to the electricity companies for the difference between the cap of 40 euros Mwh and the real price would be paid by consumers in depending on your consumption, through the famous compensation.

Payment for emitting CO2

In addition to subsidies like these, which households notice directly, there are many other types, indirect, with which the Government dedicates public funds to help industries pay the energy bill, sometimes contrary to their international obligations to emit less gases. greenhouse effect.

This is the case of the compensations that it approves every year to pay for the surplus emissions that the EU emissions trading market allows for each sector and company, with the intention that these companies do not relocate to countries that do not have these requirements. Just a few weeks ago, the Ministry of Industry announced that it will distribute 229 million among 185 industries, especially in Asturias, the Basque Country and Andalusia.

Cheaper to invest in efficiency

Returning to these 1,500 million that the Government would need to disburse in energy aid each year or the 4,000 in the most extreme case, the report also shows how these same amounts would spread much more if they were used to help households pay their bills and be more efficient and installing heat pumps instead of gas boilers or aerothermal energy instead of heating.

He proposes making “more intelligent use” of the Budget” and calculates that, if the same 4,000 million were taken, he would only need 470 million a year to compensate the most vulnerable households for the increase in energy bills and could allocate another 150 year year to invest in renewables and be more efficient.

At the same time, it would eliminate another obstacle that environmentalists see in supporting fossil fuels, in addition to the direct damage in terms of emissions.. “They discourage investment in efficiency and renewable energy,” “they constrain change,” says Del Pozo, about many of the measures that Moreno defines as “a temporary relief” for families and businesses but that should now be rethought, in most cases. cases based on income.

The Ministry of Labor wants the subsidies for the unemployed to increase up to 660 euros per month during the first six months of validity and to extend the beneficiaries also to those under 45 years of age and to temporary agricultural workers from outside Extremadura and Andalusia.. A measure that would benefit some 400,000 more unemployed people, who have already exhausted their benefits but are currently left outside the assistance system.

This was detailed this Thursday by sources from the department headed by Yolanda Díaz, who have accused the Ministry of Economy of trying to cut subsidies to the unemployed, both the amounts they receive and the period in which they have the right to enjoy the aid.. The department led by Díaz claims that the responsibility for this reform is its own, not Economy's, and considers that the text is ready and the debate is closed.. However, other knowledgeable sources indicate that the negotiation is still ongoing and there is no closed proposal yet.

The Ministry of Labor is finalizing the reform of the unemployment benefit system, aid to which unemployed people who have already exhausted their contributory benefit can apply as long as they meet a series of income and age requirements.. The Government committed to the European Union to leave the text closed in 2022, but the strong discrepancies between Labor and Economy, which is also giving its opinion on the approach of the regulation, have delayed the process.

The department led by Díaz is committed to increasing the amount of aid during the first twelve months of benefit and maintaining the current level during the remaining 18 up to a limit of 30 months.. In this way, the unemployed who enjoy this aid would receive 660 euros per month during the first six months of subsidy (110% of the Iprem); The next semester they would earn 540 euros per month (90% of the Iprem) and the last 18 months they would receive 480 euros per month (80% of the Iprem, the current amount). Furthermore, these amounts would rise if the Iprem is revalued in 2024, something that Labor takes for granted will happen.

From the Ministry of Labor they point out that Calviño's approach is to cut the maximum period in which this benefit can be enjoyed from the current 30 months to 12. According to the aforementioned sources, the Economy proposal would involve raising the subsidy up to 600 euros during the first three months and then gradually reducing it.. The second quarter would fall to 480 euros, the third to 390 and the last four months it would remain at 300.

In this way, Díaz's proposal would give the right to collect a benefit that would amount, on average, to 528 euros per month for a maximum of 30 if it is completely exhausted.. That is, 10% more than with the current system. On the other hand, the approach that Economy is pursuing, according to Labor, would involve cutting up to 442.5 euros per month on average for only 12 months (8% less than until now).

Hard clash with Calviño

The amount and duration of the subsidies have become a huge focus of dissent between the two economic souls of the Government. To the point that, from Trabajo, they accuse Calviño of designing a neoliberal reform, based on suspicion, that goes against the minimum living conditions and that many right-wing political forces would share.

The aforementioned sources even go so far as to accuse the Economy of trying to eliminate the unemployed from the statistics by reducing the duration of the subsidies.. With the current system, unemployed people who have exhausted their contributory benefit must be registered with the SEPE in order to receive aid.. Following this reasoning, if the maximum period is reduced from 30 months to 12, many registered unemployed would unsubscribe by losing the right to aid, which would facilitate an artificial decrease in unemployment.

In this sense, other knowledgeable sources reject these statements and point out that the Economy's focus is to go from subsidizing to supporting employment.. They also maintain that the current system does not help enough, condemns the unemployed to structural unemployment and is far from the standards of other European countries, where subsidies are decreasing. The Economy approach seeks to introduce incentives to reincorporate these unemployed into the labor market and to opt for the minimum vital income to cover part of the needs that now depend on these subsidies.

Agreement on the rest

In the rest of the proposals, Economy and Labor agree in general terms. Díaz's plan also aims to ensure that the unemployed who receive the subsidy can make it compatible with a job during the first 45 days.. Similarly, the scope of the measure is extended to those under 45 without family responsibilities, who until now were excluded, and also to temporary agricultural workers beyond Andalusia and Extremadura.. Labor estimates that around 400,000 more unemployed people, 150,000 people under 45 years of age and around 250,000 potential agricultural workers would join the system.

The text used by Díaz eliminates the month of waiting between when the contributory benefit is exhausted and the subsidy can begin to be received, and proposes that the review of whether the income thresholds are met be done every quarter and not every month as until now.. In this regard, Labor proposes that to define eligibility, individual or family income be analyzed, but that the criterion that is most favorable for the unemployed be applied.