The general secretary of UGT Andalucía, Carmen Castilla, highlighted after the last Social Dialogue Table held on December 28 the aid to workers in ERTE processed by the Board at the request of the union, with a disbursement of 99.5 million euros and 467,000 beneficiaries. A milestone in social dialogue, but also in administrative processing in Andalusia: never before had so much money been sent to so many beneficiaries in such a short time (a month and a half of processing) and without moving a single piece of paper. Not even a request for help. The Ministry of Employment had processed this help ‘ex officio’, and with a fully automated system, with robots helping officials with all mechanical tasks. Since the start of the pandemic, Employment has already managed more than 450 million euros in aid and has sent it to workers, SMEs and, above all, the self-employed with automated management systems never before implemented on this scale in a regional administration. And it has another 665 million in process.
Since the start of the pandemic, Employment has quickly sent more than 450 million euros to Andalusian workers, SMEs and, above all, the self-employed, to respond to needs that did not allow for delays or paperwork. A first aid of 300 euros for self-employed workers at the beginning of the crisis, another flat-rate aid of 1,000 euros also for the self-employed affected by the pandemic, rental aid for the self-employed (more than 100 million among all), maintenance aid of employment (in two calls for a global amount of more than 250 million) and the help of workers in ERTE (99.5 million).
Employment is currently managing business solvency aid organized by the central government through Royal Decree Law 5/2021 and with a budget transferred to Andalusia worth 1,109 million euros. The Board’s commitment is to process 100% of the applications received (the deadline is until January 15) and pay all those that meet the requirements within the deadlines set by the Royal Decree Law. The problem is that it will be covered only in around 60% of the budget, around 665 million euros, due to the requirements set by the central government in its regulations.
210 euro
The aid to workers in ERTE to which Carmen Castilla referred was agreed between unions, employers and the Board on March 25. It consisted of a direct flat-rate benefit and a single payment, of a socio-labor nature, amounting to 210 euros. The General Secretariat for Employment and Self-Employment designed a procedure that did not require a request by the beneficiary, but rather the General Secretariat itself would obtain their data and proceed to their recognition. To do this, the General Secretariat for Employment and Self-Employment managed to sign an agreement with the SEPE (state body) whereby the latter provided it with the necessary data.
An automation system was designed that included sending automatic SMS messages to the beneficiaries and verification of requirements, but also a personalized telephone service for all those people who called surprised because they had received an amount they did not expect, for not having received it or for any other reason. another reason.
Once SEPE provided the data, 96% of the entire initial budget (75 million euros) was processed in just one week. In that week, however, Employment detected errors in the SEPE list, which had to issue a new list with 128,000 more beneficiaries. So we had to start from scratch.
The budget was increased to 99.5 million euros to reach 466,893 beneficiaries. And the help was paid. “And all this in record time, since the first batch of aid was executed in less than a month, having all received the benefit in that period. But it is that in the second batch they also began to collect even earlier, at the week of publishing the resolution, managing to resolve all the aid in less than a month and a half”, they explain from Employment.
The robots have meant a real revolution in the times of management of the Board. Previously, companies, social entities and organizations took many months, even years, to access aid through complicated administrative procedures. Now times are counted in weeks.
We have gone from counting administrative times in months or years to doing it even in weeks
The Board has repeatedly insisted that the new way of managing does not imply a reduction in the guarantees and rights of those administered, but that the possibilities offered by new technologies are taken advantage of to support the work of officials and avoid mechanical and repetitive.
The automated processing has already been adopted by other ministries and is practically included ‘ex officio’ in all the calls currently issued by the Board. From Economic Transformation, which has processed aid for trade with this system, it has already been announced that it is a fundamental tool for managing Next Generation European funds that arrive in Andalusia.
Five ministries have already implemented these systems: Employment, Training and Self-Employment, which paved the way. Only in the first package of one hundred million in aid granted during the first months of the pandemic, savings in management costs were estimated at 1.3 million euros with 100,000 hours saved in mechanical work by civil servants. BluePrism, the company that provides the technology, pointed out the use of robots implemented in Andalusia as a “success story” and stressed that other administrations were also implementing these systems.
Equality, Social Policies and Conciliation have used 40 bots, while Economic Transformation, Industry, Knowledge and Universities have used 35 bots. The Ministry of Tourism, Regeneration, Justice and Local Administration has used 10 bots and the Ministry of Finance and European Financing has also made use of this technology.
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