Background information

With the objective of allowing companies to maintain their activities in the context of the COVID-19, measures have been taken in order to speed up and make more flexible the process whereby companies can implement collective temporary redundancies and apply reduced working time schemes.

Contract suspensions and reductions in working hours that have their direct cause in loss of activity as a consequence of COVID-19, including the declaration of the state of alarm, which imply suspension or cancellation of activities, temporary closure of places of public influx, restrictions on public transport and, in general, the mobility of people and / or goods, lack of supplies that seriously impede the continued development of the activity, or in urgent and extraordinary situations due to the contagion of the staff or the adoption of preventive isolation measures decreed by the health authority, which are duly accredited, will be considered as coming from a situation of force majeure, with the consequences derived from article 47 of the revised text of the Workers' Statute Law, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 2/2015, of October 23.

Content of measure

In the cases in which the company decides to suspend contracts or temporarily reduce the working day, the following process will be followed:

• The procedure will begin at the request of the company, which will be accompanied by a report regarding the link of the loss of activity as a result of COVID-19, as well as, where appropriate, the corresponding supporting documentation. The company must communicate its request to the workers and transfer the previous report and the supporting documentation, if any, to their representation.
• The existence of force majeure, as a motivating cause for the suspension of contracts or the reduction in working hours provided for in this article, must be verified by the labor authority, regardless of the number of workers affected.
• The resolution of the labor authority will be dictated within a period of five days from the request, following a report, where appropriate, of the Labor and Social Security Inspection and must be limited to verifying the existence, when appropriate, of force majeure. alleged by the company, corresponding to it, the decision on the application of measures to suspend contracts or reduce working hours, which will take effect from the date of the act of force majeure.
• The report of the Labor and Social Security Inspection, whose request will be optional for the labor authority, will be fulfilled within the non-extendable period of five days.

Use of measure

The number of workers affected by this policy in the period January-September 2020 has been 974,489 workers.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Employees in standard employment	Does not apply to businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Company / Companies	National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Agreed (outcome) incl. social partner initiative	Agreed (outcome) incl. social partner initiative
Form	Direct consultation outside a formal body	Direct consultation outside a formal body

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Social partners jointly
• Main level of involvement: Peak or cross-sectoral level

Involvement

Social partners were involved in designing, implementing and monitoring this policy measure. Their involvement was preceded by a bipartite agreement between the most representative trade unions and employer organisation about measures to face the COVID-19 crisis.

Views and reactions

Social partners were very supportive of this policy measure as it came out from social dialogue.

Sources

• 18 March 2020: Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, on extraordinary and urgent measures to face the economic and social impact of COVID-19. (www.boe.es)