UATAE asks the Government to extend the extraordinary benefit for fires to the self-employed

The Union of Associations of Self-Employed Workers and Entrepreneurs (UATAE) has demanded that the Government extend to self-employed workers the new extraordinary benefit approved to protect salaried employees affected by the fires ravaging different parts of Spain. The organization believes that those who cannot carry out their activity due to evacuations, confinements, closed roads, or the interruption of basic services should have the same coverage.

The measure announced by the Executive guarantees income for employed workers who cannot go to their workplaces due to the emergency, even when their companies continue to operate. However, UATAE warns that self-employed workers face the same limitations without having equivalent protection, which can leave them without income from the first day while still being obliged to face the payment of their contributions.

Therefore, the organization requests the Ministry of Labor to incorporate the self-employed collective into this extraordinary benefit and to guarantee them the payment of 100% of the regulatory base, in addition to the exemption from the self-employed quota for as long as the restrictions derived from the emergency remain in force. "The Government's decision is an important step because it recognizes that a person can be unable to work due to causes completely beyond their will, what we do not understand is that this recognition ends at the doors of self-employment," said the general secretary of UATAE, María José Landaburu.

The organization argues that extreme climatic phenomena are increasingly frequent and that the social protection system must adapt to this new reality without establishing differences between employed and self-employed workers. "The climate emergency is changing the way we live and work. If a step is taken to protect those who cannot go to their job due to a force majeure situation, that step must be for everyone, there cannot be first and second-class workers in the face of the same emergency," defended Landaburu, who urged the Government to introduce this equalization during the processing of the new benefit.