Regulation of recoverable paid leave for workers in non-essential services

This Sunday, Royal Decree-Law 10/2020 of 29 March was published, regulating recoverable paid leave for employees who do not provide essential services, in order to reduce population mobility in the context of the fight against COVID-19.

The day after the publication of Royal Decree-Law 9/2020 of 27 March, the Government adopted new employment measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 through more restrictive confinement and an almost total cessation of activity.

For this purpose, a recoverable paid leave has been created at the expense of the employer. This permit is available to workers who provide services in public and private companies and institutions whose activity has not been halted by the declaration of the state of alert established by RD 463/2020, of 14 March.

Those workers affected by this measure will be granted compulsory recoverable paid leave between 30 March and 9 April 2020 inclusive. However, the paid leave regulated by this Royal Decree-Law will not apply to the following employees who carry out the following activities classified as essential

1. Those who carry out the activities that must continue to be carried out under Articles 10.1, 10.4, 14.4, 16, 17 and 18 of Royal Decree 463/2020 of 14 March, declaring the state of alert for the management of the health crisis situation caused by COVID-19 and the regulations approved by the Competent Authority and the Delegated Competent Authorities.
2. Those that work in the activities that participate in the market supply chain and in the operation of the services of the centres of production of goods and services of first necessity, including food, drinks, animal feeding, hygienic products, medicines, sanitary products or any product necessary for the protection of the health, allowing the distribution of the same ones from the origin to the final destiny.
3. Those who provide services in the hotel and restaurant activities that make home deliveries.
4. Those providing services in the chain of production and distribution of goods, services, health technology, medical material, protective equipment, health and hospital equipment and any other material necessary for the provision of health services.
5. Those essential for the maintenance of the productive activities of the manufacturing industry that offer the supplies, equipment and materials necessary for the correct development of the essential activities included in this Annex.
6. Those that carry out transport services, both for people and goods, that continue to be carried out since the declaration of the state of alarm, as well as those that must ensure the maintenance of the means used for this purpose, under the protection of the regulations approved by the competent authority and the competent authorities delegated since the declaration of the state of alarm.
7. Those that provide services in penitentiary institutions, civil protection, maritime rescue, rescue and fire prevention and extinction, mine safety, and traffic and road safety. Likewise, those that work in private security companies that provide security transport, alarm response, patrol or discontinuous surveillance services, and those that need to be used for the performance of security services to guarantee essential services and supply the population.
8. Those that support the maintenance of the material and equipment of the armed forces.
9. Those of the health centres, services and establishments, as well as those persons who (i) attend to the elderly, minors, dependent persons or persons with disabilities, and those persons who work in companies, R&D&I and biotechnology centres linked to COVID-19, (ii) the animal facilities associated with them, (iii) the maintenance of the minimum services of the facilities associated with them and the companies supplying products necessary for said research, and (iv) those persons who work in funeral services and other related activities.
10. Those of animal health care centres, services and establishments.
11. Those that provide services in press outlets and in public and private media or news agencies, as well as in their printing or distribution.
12. Those of financial services companies, including banking, insurance and investment companies, for the provision of services that are indispensable, and activities relating to payment infrastructures and financial markets.
13. Those of telecommunications and audiovisual companies and essential computer services, as well as those networks and facilities that support them and the sectors or subsectors necessary for their proper functioning, especially those that are essential for the proper provision of public services, as well as the operation of the non-presential work of public employees.
14. Those that provide services related to the protection and care of victims of gender violence.
15. Those who work as lawyers, solicitors, social graduates, translators, interpreters and psychologists and who attend the procedural actions not suspended by Royal Decree 463/2020, of 14 March, which declared the state of alarm for the management of the health crisis situation caused by the COVID-19 and, in this way comply with the essential services established by consensus by the Ministry of Justice, the General Council of the Judiciary, the Office of the Public Prosecutor and the Autonomous Communities with jurisdiction in this area, as set out in the Resolution of the Secretary of State for Justice dated 14 March 2020, and any adaptations that may be agreed in the chaos.
16. Those that provide services in legal offices and consultancies, administrative and social graduate agencies, and external and own services for the prevention of occupational hazards, in urgent matters.
17. Those that provide services in notaries’ offices and registries for the fulfillment of the essential services established by the General Direction of Legal Security and Public Faith.
18. Those who provide cleaning, maintenance, urgent breakdown repair and surveillance services, as well as those who provide services in the collection, management and treatment of hazardous waste, as well as solid urban waste, both hazardous and non-hazardous, waste water collection and treatment, decontamination activities and other waste management services and transport and removal of by-products or in any of the entities belonging to the Public Sector, in accordance with the provisions of Article 3 of Law 9/2017, of 8 November, on Public Sector Contracts.
19. Those working in the Refugee Reception Centres and Temporary Stay Centres for Immigrants and those privately run public entities subsidised by the State Secretariat for Migration and operating within the framework of International Protection and Humanitarian Assistance.
20. Those who work in water supply, purification, conduction, potabilization and sanitation activities.
21. Those that are indispensable for the provision of meteorological services of prediction and observation and the associated processes of maintenance, surveillance and control of operational processes.
22. Those of the operator designated by the State to provide the universal postal service, in order to provide the services of collection, admission, transport, classification, distribution and delivery for the exclusive purpose of guaranteeing that universal postal service.
23. Those that provide services in those sectors or subsectors that participate in the import and supply of health material, such as logistics, transport, storage, customs transit (freight forwarders) companies and, in general, all those that participate in health corridors.
24. Those that work in the distribution and delivery of products acquired in the trade by internet, telephone or correspondence.
25. Any other undertaking providing services that have been considered essential.

Another important aspect of Royal Decree Law 10/2020 is that this permit will not apply to the following persons either:

• Workers who provide services in the sectors described as essential as indicated above.
• Workers who provide services in the divisions or production lines whose activity corresponds to the sectors classified as essential.
• Workers hired by (i) companies that have applied for or are applying for a temporary suspension of employment regulation and (ii) those that are authorized to apply for a temporary suspension of employment regulation during the validity of the permit provided for in this Royal Decree Law.
• Workers who are on temporary disability leave or whose contract is suspended for other legally stipulated reasons.
• Working people who can continue to carry out their activity normally by means of teleworking or any of the non-presential modalities of service provision.

It should be noted that the recovery of working hours may be effective from the day following the end of the alarm state until 31 December 2020. This recuperation must be negotiated in a period of consultation opened for this purpose between the company and the legal representation of the workers, which will last a maximum of 7 days.

Finally, in those cases where it is impossible to immediately interrupt the activity, workers included in the subjective scope of this royal decree law will be able to provide services this Monday 30th March 2020 with the sole purpose of carrying out the essential tasks to be able to make the recoverable paid leave effective without irremediably or disproportionately harming the resumption of the business activity.

From AddVANTE’s Labour Department we remain at your disposal for further information or to resolve any doubts that may arise in relation to this article.