On Friday, President Armengol announced a special employment plan that will benefit 33,000 people and have investment of 72.4 million euros. The announcement was made following the latest meeting of the so-called social dialogue table, which consists of government, business and union representatives.
Iago Negueruela, minister for the economic model, tourism and employment, explained that the plan has six elements, with 30.8 million euros to be earmarked for public sector hiring and employment stimulus programmes. These will benefit over 4,200 people, an objective being more employment opportunities in the public sector in order to alleviate current difficulties with employment.
Negueruela added that there are to be specific programmes targeted at the over-45, at young people and at those who have never previously experienced unemployment. In this regard, training will play an important role, with almost 28 million euros to be allocated to training schemes. Some eleven million euros will be for vulnerable people.
The general secretary of the CCOO union in the Balearics, José Luis García, said that the two pillars of the plan are hiring and dual training (theoretical and practical) in order to alleviate the situation that workers are currently experiencing, especially the unemployed. His counterpart at the UGT union, Alejandro Texias, stressed the need for the most vulnerable people to be able to rejoin the labour market.
Carmen Planas, president of the Confederation of Balearic Business Associations, was unconvinced as to the need for these measures. In her opinion, it is necessary to reactivate demand so that businesses can maintain jobs and create new ones. Planas expressed her preference for public-private initiative and drew attention to the fact that the Balearics has been one of Spain's regions to have suffered most because of the pandemic. She was of the view that coronavirus tests for travellers at ports and airports will facilitate economic recovery.
The president of the Pimem small to medium-sized businesses federation, Jordi Mora, highlighted proposals for the self-employed as well as dual training and recruitment. "We have some very difficult months ahead of us."