The union CC.OO. is based on two pieces of information to demand that the pending reform of the unemployment protection system be accelerated. On the one hand, the percentage of unemployed without coverage, practically one in three, and on the other, long-term unemployment. At the end of 2022, the unemployment coverage rate was 68.7%, which, although it represents an increase compared to previous years, also implies leaving almost a third of the unemployed registered and with work experience without coverage.
On the other hand, the second piece of information is the high number of long-term unemployed, 45% of the total -1,359,000 people- at the end of 2022. Among them, there are 611,000 who have been unemployed for more than four years, which means 22% of the unemployed.
These are figures collected in the CC.OO report. Labor Market and Unemployment Protection, corresponding to the year 2022, presented today and which is largely focused on claiming "the pending reform of unemployment protection".
It is a reform included in the recovery plan, but Carlos Bravo, the CCOO's Confederal Secretary for Public Policies and Social Protection, warns that they want a real reform, not a “dressing” operation to appear to comply with Brussels. "We would like to summon the Government and the Ministry of Labor so that they do not make a seasoning reform to comply with the plan, but rather take advantage of the commitment for a deep and agreed reform of the social benefit for unemployment," says the unionist.
However, in the union they are pessimistic given the attitude of the Executive. "They tell us that they are going to do it, but they have not agreed to meet with the social partners to address it," said Bravo. They have not even passed a draft of the reform, they complain in CC.OO, who demand social dialogue in this field.
CC.OO. considers that the reform does not materialize for budgetary reasons, and sees in the Treasury the main obstacles that prevent it. The objective of the union is that the reform of unemployment benefits separates the sources of financing between contributory and non-contributory ones, that it reinforces the benefits, rearranges the compatibility between the Minimum Vital Income (IMV) and the benefits of the autonomous communities, as well as such as strengthening the action capacity of the public employment services to promote the placement of the unemployed.
However, the union fears that the reform, if it is carried out in this legislature, which seems difficult, will remain in matters of administrative management, eliminating waiting periods, and not in a thorough change that drastically reduces the number of requirements to those who ask for subsidies, among other things.
On the other hand, Bravo dismisses the idea that the regulations must be modified so that those who reject job offers lose their employment subsidy. He argues that only 10% of the unemployed exhaust the subsidy, and that the vast majority stop receiving it before exhausting it, which indicates that the current controls are sufficient and that there are already supervision mechanisms to penalize if adequate control offers are rejected.
