Close to 1 Million in Spain Await Furlough Payments, Survey Says

(Bloomberg) --

Close to one million employees in Spain are still awaiting their furlough payments, according to a survey of administrative agents, another example of the challenges many workers and businesses around the world are facing to access emergency aid from governments.

The report said 25% of the 3.7 million workers temporarily suspended from their jobs because of the coronavirus lockdown still haven’t received the part of their monthly paychecks they are owed. That would mean some people have been waiting since March, when Spain introduced strict restrictions on movement.

Employers and their workers are “desperate,” said Fernando Santiago, the head of the General Council of Administrative Agents of Spain. Its members are mainly hired by small and medium-sized businesses to do paperwork and accounts.

The council conducted the survey among its 6,000 members, and extrapolated the data from their responses.

A spokeswoman for Spain’s Labor Ministry disputed the figures. She said the government has approved 3.3 million ERTEs, as the scheme is known, and there are no delays.

However, Spanish workers and businesses have also complained publicly in recent weeks about delays in furlough payments.

The government, like others in Europe, was forced to rapidly expand and adapt welfare programs to help those temporarily suspended from jobs because of the pandemic. In Spain, most furloughed workers received a portion of their paycheck directly from the employment agency. In some other European countries, the government reimburses the companies after they pay suspended employees.

Santiago and other business leaders have blamed the delay on the overwhelming number of claims. They’ve also cited a lack of coordination between some regional governments, which approve companies furloughing workers, and the national government, which then oversees the payments made directly to workers.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.