Up to 100,000 Spanish workers facing temporary layoffs
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As the death count in Spain continues to spiral, workers, particularly those on temporary contracts, continue to suffer the brunt with 100,000 people facing losing jobs. Spain extended its state of emergency for two weeks last Sunday, as more than 35,000 people got infected with the novel coronavirus.
This lockdown brought business to a standstill and most major companies are reverting to a legal provision which allows them to temporary lay off workers by suspending their contracts. These include Spanish airline Iberia, with 90% of its 16,000 employees facing the prospect of an indefinite redundancy as well as car manufacture Seat (owned by Volkswagen) who is planning to limit this decision to production-line employees, which amount to some 10,000. Seat, however, has reached an agreement with local Unions to cover up to 80% of salaries during the temporary suspension of the contracts.
Major food chains were also picking the pieces of the shutdown. Burger King Spain has asked 14,000 employees not to keep reporting to work, 11,000 of its own together with 3,000 operating in franchise restaurants. The Alsea group which operates popular brands such as Starbucks, Foster’s Hollywood and Cañas y Tapas has stopped 22,000 employees.
Hotel chain Ibertostar has announced the closure of all hotels around the country, a measure which could soon apply to all properties in other countries. Iberostar owns 120 hotels around 19 countries, employing 34,000 members of staff.
The Spanish Ministry for Employment announced that it will shortly be coming up with additional resources to support the job market and protect employment as much as possible.
