The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luís Escrivá, considers that “a cultural change is needed in Spain” to follow the European trend of working more and more between 55 and 70 or 75 years of age.
In an interview with the newspaper ‘Ara’, he assured: “At these ages, for demographic reasons and quality of life, it is possible to work more. And Spain is a European anomaly: not only do we not follow this trend, but we reduce the proportion of active over 55 years of age.
Asked if the pension system is sustainable, he answered yes and assured that bringing the effective retirement age closer to the legal age is “the most powerful mechanism” for its sustainability, for which the Government’s objective is disincentives for early retirement to be more effective.
He has assured that the central Executive has the challenge of reducing the structural public deficit and has argued that new taxes are not needed in Spain but rather “evaluate” the exemptions and tax benefits to see if they fulfill their function.
He has stated that youth employment does not replace senior employment and has advocated “generating dynamics within companies so that people of a certain age change their activity, working hours, dedication…”.
Migration, training and freelancers
For Escrivá, it is necessary to promote regular and orderly migration mechanisms, in his words, that respond to the needs of the labor market, and he lamented that the current model generates “pockets of irregular immigration that are widespread over time.”
He has opted for training for workers affected by the Temporary Employment Regulation Files (ERTE) and has argued that “if something is missing in Spain, it is dual training mechanisms and within companies”.
He has stated that the bulk of the self-employed who were “protected” by the extraordinary strike will receive aid in the form of exemptions so that they can maintain their activity and, on the other hand, he has advocated penalizing the abuse of very short-term contracts.
Minimum Living Income
He has said that the Government has granted 350,000 requests for minimum vital income (IMV) –28,000 of which in Catalonia–, but he has regretted that many people that the Government had identified as potential beneficiaries have not requested the aid, so they are designing a survey to target them.
He has also assured that many requests have been rejected, because “there is a great distance between the perception that one has of how poor he is and about his situation of vulnerability and the reality”, and has defended that the bulk of regional income beneficiaries have requested the IMV.
He added, in relation to the management of the coronavirus crisis, that in no other European country have there been exemptions for active workers.
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