Political agreement to launch the public fund for victims of asbestos "in three months"

Political agreement to launch the public fund for victims of asbestos "in three months"

After months of negotiation, the political parties have reached an agreement in the Congress of Deputies on the future public fund to compensate victims of asbestos. Once the regulation is approved, it must be up and running "in three months", they explain to elDiario.es from PSOE and United We Can. The law to regulate this instrument, which the Basque Parliament unanimously demanded, has suffered several potholes in its processing since in March the PSOE presented some amendments that broke the consensus reached until that moment. These proposed to exclude workers from economic compensation, a measure that several sources awarded to the Ministry of Social Security and that has declined in the negotiation.

The faces of asbestos victims fighting for compensation

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The amendments of the socialist group raised unions and groups of victims against the Government and the PSOE, urging the withdrawal of the amendments. Also to the Parliament of Euskadi, including Basque socialists, who expressly demanded that the spirit of the agreed compensation fund be respected. Thus, for months the socialist group in Congress has been negotiating amendments with the rest of the political formations that will unite positions and achieve a new agreement to regulate this instrument, promised to victims for years.

The exclusion of workers from compensation was soon withdrawn from the negotiating table by the PSOE, but other differences still persisted in terms of financing and organic dependence on the public fund within the Administration. Finally, consensus has been reached this Tuesday.

"According to the text of the paper, the compensation fund will depend on the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, which is where it was initially planned," they explain in United We Can. “Another of the points included in the agreement is that not only the workers will be beneficiaries of the fund, but also the environmental and domestic victims,” they add.

Commissioning in “three months”

The legislative text will be voted on at the beginning of July in the Labor and Social Security Commission, yet to determine on what day. The parliamentary commission has legislative capacity, so the law does not have to go through the plenary session of Congress, but will go directly to the Senate for final approval.

The agreement establishes "a maximum term of three months" for the start-up of the fund, indicate the PSOE and United We Can, who emphasize that its start-up is expected to be rapid. The Government agreed with EH Bildu a first endowment for the victim fund of 25 million euros in the General State Budgets for this 2022. Oskar Matute, deputy for Eh Bildu, trusts that already this year the victims will be able to go to the fund to access compensation. "It should start this year," emphasizes Matute, who celebrates that "sanity has been imposed" with this pact so that "victims are no longer abandoned and have access to compensation."

"Thanks to the work of United We Can and the pressure of unions and associations, and the rest of the Basque parliamentary groups, an agreement has been closed this Wednesday with the PSOE to launch the compensation fund for asbestos", they explain to this medium from the training led by Yolanda Díaz in the Government.

The parliamentary groups have agreed on the legal text "unanimously", they underline for their part in the PSOE, without any vote against. It remains to be seen what Vox will vote on in the commission, which in taking into consideration the norm called the measure a "chiringuito". “It is an achievement of all collectively. No one has more prominence than anyone, "says the PSOE deputy, Mercè Perea. "Unanimity is basic so that the victims feel recognized, in the present and the future, that we do not generate uncertainty," adds the socialist parliamentarian.

Financing by Budgets

The public fund will depend on the INSS (National Social Security Institute), as claimed by the Basque Parliament. The Ministry led by José Luis Escrivá defended that he hang from IMSERSO, but finally he will be located in the INSS, as the unions and victims' associations also requested.

In addition, "a monitoring commission" is regulated, explains Mercè Perea, instead of an advisory body, which will be located in the Ministry of Labor. Specifically, in the Institute of Safety and Health at Work, where the social agents will be represented.

about financing, another of the clash points of the unions and victims with the Government, the political agreement establishes that this be assigned through the General State Budgets and that, in addition, the State subrogates the compensations that are recognized to the victims in court, but that are not attended by the companies. In many cases, the companies that violated health regulations and are responsible for the deaths and illnesses of their workforce no longer exist, or cannot respond to compensation, so the public fund would respond by compensating those affected.

It is not included, as it appeared in the proposed law raised from Euskadi, that Social Security contributions can feed the public fund with resources. The unions and victims also demanded this point as a guarantee of financing, so that it would not depend on the budget allocation of the government in power.

The unions have demanded that the compensation be exempt from taxation, as is the case with some such as HIV, they maintain from CCOO. Not so with those of the compensation fund for victims of thalidomide. This claim is not part of the agreement reached on Tuesday and has been submitted to the Ministry of Finance, which is the one who should authorize the measure, according to parliamentary sources.

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