Cañete (Pimec) proposes the recipe to reduce the collapse of low attendances in primary care
The president of the SMEs employers' association claims an agreement with the government, parties, and unions to execute 60 million of Social Security that would reduce absenteeism at work
BarcelonaThe president of Pimec, Antoni Cañete, has proposed an agreement with the government, parties, and unions to utilize the 60 million from the agreement with Social Security to strengthen primary care and reduce absenteeism. In this way, he insists on the warning he already gave in an interview with ARA, in which he warned that these resources are not being executed and must be returned.
in an interview with ARA, in which he warned that these resources are not being executed and must be returned.
He did so during his speech at the Fòrum Europa Tribuna Catalunya, presented by the former president of Cercle d'Economia and president of Meridia Capital, Javier Faus, in an auditorium with the presence of the President of the Parliament, Josep Rull; the ministers of Economy, Alícia Romero, and Enterprise, Miquel Sàmper, and the general secretary of UGT de Catalunya, Camil Ros, among other attendees.
Cañete assured that the economic reinforcement of primary care would contribute to reducing the "collapse" that, as he denounced, is currently experienced and which increases absenteeism, one of the main problems posed by companies. In his opinion, this element is one of the factors that prolong sick leave. And he gave as an example that last year's agreement with the unions to resolve with 10 million euros the "bottleneck" in Catalonia's sick leave management system, the ICAM, allowed 6,000 pending cases to be resolved.
The president of Pimec stated that the debate "is not against anyone nor does it intend to point fingers at anyone". And he recalled that throughout Europe there is an inverse relationship between unemployment and the number of sick leaves. Norway, for example, with 2% unemployment, is the country with the highest proportion of sick leaves. The problem is that Spain and Catalonia are second, despite having an unemployment rate of 10%.
Conditions for raising salaries
During his speech, Cañete also considered it "urgent and necessary" to raise salaries, but only if productivity and company size are increased to gain competitiveness. "We have a productivity problem: since 1995 we have not improved productivity," he stated. The debate, he said, is not about reducing working hours, but rather "it is more of a salary issue".
He also defended the importance of immigration with "dignified conditions and with rights and obligations". He recalled that "between 2020 and 2023 Catalonia lost 50,000 people from the active population and, at the same time, created 280,000 jobs, which forced the incorporation of 330,000 immigrants to cover vacancies". In response to questions from the audience about taxes, Cañete defended "fair and competitive taxation".
