The self-employed association ATA criticizes the Government’s decision to ban layoffs: “It goes against freedom” | Economy

Lorenzo Amor, president of the National Federation of Self-Employed Workers Associations (ATA), has shown his rejection of the prohibition of layoffs by companies that allege economic losses as a result of the rise in prices caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and that the Government has included in the package of measures to contain inflation that it will approve this Tuesday in the Council of Ministers. “The music sounds good, but you have to see the lyrics”, indicated the president of ATA, during his speech after the celebration of the assembly that the organization has held this Monday in Madrid, and which has been closed by the economic vice president, Nadia Calviño .

Amor has criticized the fact that measures such as the prohibition of objective dismissals, promoted by the Ministry of Labor, and which the Government also adopted during the pandemic, have been incorporated into the plan without communication with employers and representatives of organizations. freelancers like ATA. “Is there something [en referencia al plan] that we do not like, such as going against freedom of enterprise, or that labor measures have been made without consensus and without social dialogue”, the president protested. “This crisis has caught the self-employed and companies very broke,” added Amor, who has once again criticized the contribution system for real income proposed by the Ministry of Social Security, and which is still under negotiation. “The self-employed must lower their contributions, but that reform that raises them for half of them should be put on hold until 2025 ″, he has claimed.

The president of ATA, however, has celebrated the pact reached by the Government with the most representative organizations of the group of carriers, and has criticized the decision of the National Platform for the Defense of Transport to maintain the strikes. “Today 95% of the self-employed in transport are working. I hope that the streets will not be cut off again, and that anyone who wants to work will be allowed to work. The organizations are not here to wear down governments, but to talk and negotiate with them”, he has indicated.

The Vice President of the Government and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, has been in charge of putting the finishing touch to the ATA General Assembly, and in her speech she has valued the measures that make up the economic and social plan against the consequences of the conflict in Ukraine presented hours before by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. “The president has spoken of some principles that have to guide us, such as unity, determination, justice and European patriotism, which are the constitutional values ​​that we must not lose sight of, now that we have to make unprecedented decisions” , Calvino has acknowledged.

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The economic vice president explained that the decision not to apply a generalized tax cut responds to the difference between the current crisis and the one caused by the coronavirus. “The impact of this war is not comparable to that of the pandemic. We are talking about a rise in prices, not a break in a good part of the Spanish productive sectors. Across Europe they are focusing on helping the most affected sectors”, she has indicated.

With regard to the aid package aimed at containing the rise in fuel prices, such as the application of a reduction of 20 cents per liter of fuel, of which 15 will be borne by the Government and 5 by the oil companies, Calviño has called on the conveners of strikes that cease their protest. “We have to recover normality, and together we must give certainty to citizens and companies. I make a request for responsibility for that group of people who continue to maintain actions that try to hinder the operation of the sector ”, he has sentenced.

Regarding the situation of the self-employed, the economic vice president has recognized that the proper functioning of this group -of more than three million people-, and of small and medium-sized companies will have repercussions on that of the country. “You are the heart of the Spanish economy, and a group in expansion, as the Social Security records show. If the self-employed are doing well, Spain is doing well”, she concluded.