The comprehensive bill for the impulse of the social economy, currently in process, proposes a series of modifications that put in serious danger the use of thousands of people with disabilities in Spain. With a direct affectation on the Special Employment Centers (CEE) of Business Initiative, it is reasonable to fear that This reform not only excludes these centers of recognition as entities of the social economy, but also deprives more than 60,000 workers with disabilities of decent and stable employment. CEE have proven to be a fundamental pillar in the labor insertion of people with disabilities. In 2023, according to data from the Public State Employment Service (SEPE), These centers gave work to almost 130,000 people, of which more than 111,000 were workers with disabilities. Of these, 57.62% provided services in CEE of business initiative. The new legislation intends to marginalize the latter, denying their role in the social economy.
A successful success model
Since its creation, CEE have allowed thousands of people with disabilities to access the labor market, promoting their autonomy and contributing to social welfare. However, the recent debate on the new legislation to approve evidence a double historical discrimination. With the approval of Law 9/2017 of Public Sector Contracts, a legal differentiation was established that favors the EEC of Social Initiative, and in 2019 it was consolidated with the implementation of a double salary table, forcing CEE workers for Social Initiative to perceive lower salaries for the same work, while creating a higher cost burden on the business initiative centers. These decisions have generated a precedent of exclusion in which it would now be deepened with the new project.
In this sense, this Government’s initiative also ignores the special composition of the ECE templates of business initiative and their contribution to protected employment. For more inri, lReforma has been designed without consulting Conacee, the main employer of the sector, leaving most of these centers in the legislative process.
Negative impact of reform
If implemented in current terms, we fear that the reform supposes the Exclusion of thousands of workers with disabilities in the labor market And we maintain that many special employment centers of business initiative will be forced to close, With the danger of leaving more than 60,000 people with disabilities without employment.
In parallel, we maintain that there would be an increase in public spending In benefits and aidsince, if these workers lose their employment, the State must assume greater costs in subsidies and social aid, which represents an investment much higher than the current system of support for the CEE.
But beyond the merely economic, The application of the regulations would affect unjustified discrimination, allowing cooperatives and brotherhoods to maintain their status within the social economy while deepening the marginalization of the EEC of business initiative, despite their demonstrated social function, as well as its obvious effective and economically sustainable model.
In that line, Another worrying effect is the generation of unfair competition. Currently, the EEC of Social Initiative already have an advantageous position in public procurement and salary matters. With this reform, they will not only keep it, but will expand it. And although from the government it insists that this bill does not lead to harmful consequences for the business initiative centers, we are afraid that, de facto and for the exposed reasons, its expulsion of the so -called social economy supposes greater loads and worse conditions for the centers of that nature.
A call to rectification
Protected employment has been designed to offer real opportunities to people with disabilitiesclearly differentiating from ordinary companies. We cannot allow this reform to dismantle a model that has demonstrated its effectiveness for decades.
From Conacee we demand the modification of the bill to guarantee the continuity of all EEC in the social economy because Its implementation in the current terms would imply that we did not have the same rules of the game as the social initiative. It is imperative that the government and the legislator listen to the main affected and adopt regulations that really protect and promote the use of people with disabilities.
It is not just a legal or economic issue, but a social commitment. Let us not let a reform whose design can be improved to exclusion thousands of workers who today find an opportunity for labor development and dignity.
#Social #Economy #Bill #threat #people #disabilities
