The rise of the SMI causes unemployment to increase in January

The president of the National Federation of Associations of Autonomous Workers (ATA), Lorenzo Amor, believes it is "striking" that the first month after approving the rise of 22.3% of the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI) and 7% of the maximum bases or the elimination of the contract to entrepreneurs, the affiliation has fallen and the unemployment increased at the rate that it has done it.

This is what Amor pointed out in a meeting with the media, where he also recalled that last year these figures were not lost nor the previous year either. "Someone has to examine why some measures are not helping to maintain job creation," he added.

"Nor is it good when we have the worst figure in six years in the field of self-employed", pointed out the president of ATA, which has also stressed that this decline is due to the fact that it is not sold and that consumption is not at the levels it should.

"We all know that January is a terrible month for employment, but we did not expect this information," he added. He also stated that "he was aware that the measures that had been taken in the last time could affect employment, but not in this way."

In this line, has made it clear that if the economy was good, there would be no impediment to create more than 500,000 jobs as other years, but recalled that the Government's forecasts for this year go through the creation of about 330,000 jobs. "You can not say that you are going to generate half of the job and then say that the economy is going well, because that shows," he added.

In spite of this, he affirmed that it will be necessary to see what happens in the coming years, although he considers that the Bank of Spain, AIReF and the CEOE's own forecasts will confirm that a rise of 22.3% of the SMI to 900 euros in just one year will be "unbearable" for many companies, because "they are not going to sell 22.3% more".

For Love, the Government must have "very much in mind that you can not punish self-employed workers and companies either fiscally or by increasing contributions, because this will affect employment". Thus, he said that he expects that the "terrible" data of the first month of the year are only punctual and it is "a bad month of January more".

As reported by Europa Press, facing the end of the year, Amor does not foresee that the Special Regime of Self-Employed Workers (RETA) will go to negative figures, although he expects that instead of creating the 52,000 self-employed workers that were created in 2018, the figures are around 35,000 new self-employed workers.

Regarding the possibility of the Government reviewing certain bonuses, including the flat rate, Amor has stated that he believes that the recently signed agreement can be given "very little validity" if the Government proposes to review this tool.

In addition, on the contribution system for real income, Amor has indicated that he is "understanding" and that he knows that the Government is working on the approval of the Budgets. However, he has made it clear that this measure "is not a blank check" and that any measure presented by the Government will be analyzed. "They will not have our yes blindly," he added.

"When we present the proposal we will analyze it and we will give our vision, but there is someone who wants to run a lot and put this in motion," Amor described, after stating that "the price should be lowered for self-employed who enter below the SMI , but talk about the need to raise the price to others, you have to see it, because whoever squeezes a lot can choke. "

This Monday has been the celebration of the board of directors of the federation in which it has approved the convening of an ordinary General Assembly and another extraordinary, which will take place on March 7, which will ratify the integration agreement in CEOE and the ATA accounts.

As Amor has announced, the board of directors has unanimously approved the appointment of Fermín Albaladejo as vice president of ATA and the incorporation of Ana Plaza, who was the general director of CEAT, and who will be a member of the board.