The Balearic government, the Council of Majorca and other institutions are to make 15 million euros of direct aid available to the self-employed.
The social dialogue working party, which met on Wednesday, approved this assistance for the self-employed whose work is both seasonal and all-year and who have not been included in state aid provision. For the self-employed who work alone, the funding will be 2,000 euros; for those who have one or two employees, 2,500; and for three or more employees, 3,000 euros. In order to qualify, the self-employed who work all year will have to resume their activity within a month and maintain it for at least six months. For the seasonal self-employed, they will have to maintain their activity for at least four months and will have until the end of this year to do so.
The government is providing eight million euros, the Council two million and other institutions five million; these others are the island councils in Ibiza, Minorca and Formentera, Calvia and Palma town halls, and the Felib federation of town halls.
President Armengol said at the meeting that there are some 94,000 self-employed in the Balearics. While the majority have qualified for state aid and loans from the Isba bank for small business financing, up to 10,000 need specific assistance from the Balearic government and other institutions. She acknowledged that these grants will not solve all the problems that the self-employed have. However, they are "an incentive to maintain activity and provide hope for the future".
For Majorca there will be a minimum of eight million euros; the final amount will depend on what is forthcoming from Felib. Majorca has 71,000 self-employed.
The vice-president of the CAEB Confederation of Balearic Business Associations, Eduardo López, hoped that there will be "agility" in making these grants effective. He added that the meetings of the working party were essential in order to activate society. Otherwise, "there will be a real catastrophe".
The president of the Pimem federation of small to medium-sized businesses, Jordi Mora, noted that it had been calling for help for the self-employed for some time. ERTEs to protect workers don't give the self-employed this same protection. The UGT and CCOO unions expressed their satisfaction with the aid, while observing that almost half of the population of the Balearics is currently unemployed or subject to ERTE provisions.