The 8,748 workers of the State Public Employment Service (SEPE) are called by the Workers’ Trade Union (USO) to strike this Monday and Tuesday in protest at the lack of human and material resources in the provision of the service.
The strike affects the three SEPE work shifts: between 7:00 and 15:30 for the workforce with a morning shift; between 7:00 and 18:00 hours in the morning and afternoon and special dedication; and between 1:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., for the afternoon shift.
The minimum services that have been established from the direction of the public body for both days is 12 posts for central services; six posts for the Provincial Offices, and one post for the benefit offices.
According to the monitoring data shared by USO, at the state level the monitoring on this first day is 30%. The areas with the greatest follow-up have been Las Palmas (39%), Barcelona (38%) and Valencia (36%). Data that contrasts with those offered by the Ministry of Labor, which has encrypted the monitoring of unemployment in the morning shift among civil servants and labor personnel at 2.8%.
“Serious deficiencies” of the organism
USO has decided to go on strike in the face of the “serious deficiencies” of the body, which have not been addressed despite the requests and complaints made in recent months, especially in the face of the avalanche of temporary employment regulation files (Erte) presented.
The union has stressed that, at the beginning of last month, the SEPE workers to put an end to this situation, for which they have resorted to calling a two-day strike.
They demand more fixed staff
Among the USO demands for the SEPE are that of increasing by 50% to face the body’s workload; the establishment of common management guidelines for all the Provincial Offices of the agency; the updating and modernization of the computer applications used by the SEPE; the recognition of the right of the workforce in terms of transfers and contests, and the “immediate” end of the precariousness and temporality of interim personnel.
Currently, the SEPE computer system is not fully operational after the use of its services on the web was paralyzed. However, over the days, the SEPE has been recovering some of them with the help of computer experts. It is already possible, for example, to request an appointment, communicate periods of activity, send company certificates and make collective requests for ERTE due to Covid, among others. It is also possible to use their unemployment protection services except for verification of documents and inquiries about the benefit.
UGT sees the strike as “inopportune”
For its part, the Federation of Public Services of the UGT has described as “inappropriate” and “untimely” the strike called by USO in SEPE, although it understands that there are sufficient reasons to do so.
From the union they emphasize that right now there are different negotiating tables open to channel the ways of solving the problems that exist in the SEPE. “The strike must be a tool of protest and pressure when all possible avenues of dialogue have been exhausted, something that does not happen on this occasion. As long as there is negotiation, you cannot go on strike,” said the union, which has asked that this instrument is not used “in a manipulative way”.
In addition, the union sees the call for a strike as “inopportune” because SEPE services are now more essential than ever due to the pandemic. “Right now, when the body is beginning to recover from its last blow (the ‘cyber attack’ on March 9), calling for a strike is not going to help the negotiation that is taking place and is only going to suppose an increase in the delay of the tasks of the service provided by the SEPE and worsen the vision of the citizens of the work carried out by this essential public service”, it reflects in a statement.