The general secretary of the UGT, Pepe Álvarez, yesterday asked the Government to toughen its position with public aid, so that any unemployed or beneficiary of the Minimum Vital Income (IMV) who rejects a job, when they come together with the necessary training to occupy it, you will be penalized by removing the benefit.
"We will have to go one step further and if a person who rejects an offer, when they have been offered training so that they have the necessary qualities, if it is a person who is receiving a public subsidy, be it unemployment or the Minimum Vital Income, the country should consider whether to continue charging it or not", he claimed during his participation in the Cita con EL MUNDO forum.
As of today, the Public State Employment Service (SEPE) considers it a serious infraction for an unemployed person to reject a job that is considered suitable for him and penalizes him by removing the benefit for three months. If he rejects an offer a second time, it's taken away for six months, and if he does it a third time, he loses it forever.
"It is considered a serious infraction to reject a suitable job offer, whether it is offered by public employment services, or by placement agencies (when they carry out activities in the field of collaboration with them), except for justified cause", it states. the body, which also considers it equally serious to refuse to participate in social collaboration work or employment programs, including those for professional integration, or in actions for promotion, training or professional retraining, offered by public employment services, except justified cause. As well as in the actions of orientation and professional information offered by the placement agencies (when they develop activities in the field of collaboration with them).
Regarding the Minimum Income, all its beneficiaries -with some exceptions- have a period of six months to sign up as job seekers, as stated in the law that regulates its operation, but there is no penalty if they reject an offer collected in the norm. Sanctions are provided if the beneficiaries do not participate in the inclusion strategies promoted by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations.
The only beneficiaries who will not have to sign up as job seekers are those who are studying regulated studies and are under 28 years of age -when they do, they will have to meet that term-; those who have signed the special agreement with Social Security as caregivers of people in a situation of dependency; those over 65 years of age or those who are receiving a contributory pension for permanent disability in the degree of absolute or severe disability, a non-contributory disability pension or a contributory retirement pension; those who are affected by a disability to a degree equal to or greater than 65 percent; and those who have a recognized situation of dependency.
To Pepe Álvarez, the current system of penalties does not seem sufficient and he asks that the Government go one step further and toughen these sanctions. The request is similar to the one expressed by the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, during the electoral campaign, when she warned that she would eliminate the unemployment benefit and the Citizenship Income -similar to the IMV- to any unemployed person who rejected a job offer.
In addition, he has been very critical of the SEPE, of which he says that "it has become a mere registry", without making employment policies and without contributing to the relocation of the three million unemployed in the country, which causes there to be jobs vacancies and that the Executive opt for hiring at source in other countries in sectors such as construction, which it also opposes.
"There are three problems: one, I am sure that the people who should occupy these positions do not receive the job offer; two, that we do not have guidance in the employment services precisely to train people in those specialties that are going to be necessary; and, three, because instead of going to look for people in any country, who at the moment are living more or less happily and who have no prospect of leaving their country, it is more productive to take the unemployed, train them and that they come to work", defended this Thursday.
The general secretary of the UGT asked for resources, means and efforts so that the unemployed have the opportunity to have a job and compared the situation in Spain with that of other countries. "In the northern European countries that we look at so much, each person who deals with the orientation of unemployed workers has between 100 and 200 under their care, in Spain they have 2,500 each, it is impossible for them to help them find a job," he lamented.
"It cannot be said that there are no construction workers in Spain when there are 3 million unemployed, let's be serious, that these training processes do not take years, that they are simple and could allow us to employ many people in our country. What Is there a problem because the vacancies are not in the same place where the unemployed are located? Well, let's get to work, perhaps it is preferable to pay a salary for displacement than to go to another country for those workers when perhaps they don't even know they had raised it," he proposed.
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