Elsa Maishman (Reporter)
THE high rate of poverty across Spain has set alarm bells ringing in the EU.
Levels of poverty, inequality and social exclusion are ‘among the highest in the EU’, according to the European Commission’s Spain 2017 Report.
“The gap between the wealthiest 20% and the poorest 20% is one of the biggest in the Union, and it continues to rise” reads the report, published last week.
At 31.5%, Andalucia has the second-highest rate of unemployment in Europe, according to Eurostat figures.
The EC report praises the progress made in reducing jobless queues in Spain: 2016 saw an almost 10% drop in unemployment across the country.
However, it also highlights the problem of temporary employment, saying that 13.1% of Spanish employees are at risk of falling into poverty.
The influential Union UGT has recently complained that the majority of jobs found by the unemployed are under ‘precarious working conditions’, with just 4% of contracts both long-term and full-time.
The EC report also highlighted the fact that 27% of workers in Spain are on temporary contracts – the second-highest percentage in the EU, outdone only by Greece.
No surprise as long as Spain is not willing to introduce major changes within its labour legislation. Company owners will not take the risk of fulltime empoyment as long as it is so difficult and expensive to dismiss employees. And as long as the unions defend privileges like with the wastemen of the city of Málaga, where those jobs are inheritable.
It seems Spain is in the EU dog house for so many things these days. It looks like they have run out of patience, and are beginning to see how it really is for people living in Spain.