The Government has today approved measures in an attempt to Alcoa back up on its threat to close its plant At la Coruña and Avilés, which employ nearly 700 workers. The multinational has repeatedly denounced in recent years the high prices of energy that suffer their Spanish factories, complaining that the minister of Industry, Reyes Maroto, has taken up with, on the whole, a proposal that has been approved today by the Council of Ministers: the creation of a Status of Consumer Electrointensivos, allowing a lowering of costs and reducing the volatility of electrical prices in major industries. Maroto has warned that the measures they want to “avoid the closure of companies”, although he has not made direct references to Alcoa.
The approved measure opens a processing of six months for the finish to define the elements that will dress out in the statute, but the basic idea is to recognize the needs of those consumers that have intensive electricity and consume electricity in hours of low electrical demand, as would be the case of the metallurgical industry. The Government assumes that for these companies the price of electricity is one of the main factors of production, so give them stability is one of the few formulas in order to bring competitiveness and to enable them to maintain market share and so want to follow in Spain.
The regional governments of Galicia and Asturias had sued a shock plan with the central Government to try to change of opinion, to the address of Alcoa, which has threatened repeatedly his departure from Spain.
Maroto Sahabet explained after the meeting of the Council of Ministers on the measures of Government there will be benefits for companies, but also obligations. With respect to these last, the minister has advised that the grant of offsets of carbon dioxide, which will be this December, it will be from now on conditional. The companies that benefit should ensure that your plants are kept active at least during the following three years and that if you are running regulations of employment, the templates are not reduced more than 15%.
Another of the measures that passed today is an extension of the useful life of cogeneration plants using renewable fuels or natural gas that have passed their useful life this year. That extension will be two years. It also opens the door to the creation of networks of electrical distribution closed, a measure directed particularly to the polygons petrochemical plants of Tarragona and Huelva.
respite Contract
The Government has approved today finally an extension of the respite contract, which will last four years, but only for jobs linked to manufacturing, such as advanced COUNTRY. The modification, which facilitates the rejuvenation of templates with the entry of younger workers in exchange for partial retirement programmes, means to retract the conditions to the previous regulations 2012, as amended with the changes introduced in the Pensions act. According to Government estimates, this update of the conditions will “ensure” and 70,000 jobs in the next five years.
The plan was a specific request of the automotive sector, which considers it essential to maintain conditions of competitiveness with foreign plants and to rejuvenate templates and promote the training in your templates. Despite the internal differences in employers associations and trade unions, the government has supported amendments only to the industrial sector and for only those jobs directly related to jobs in production lines.
