warnings They started to venture into the shoe industry. Elongated consumption decline registered in major European countries complicated situation Already the majority of local producers They are working on possible staffing adjustments to cope with the loss of income they experienced. Also a situation seen The Labor Inspectorate’s obstacles to the use of temporary permanent contracts have become worse, This has so far provided employers with some flexibility in times like the current one, which will force them to resort to Employment Arrangement Files, whether definitive or temporary.
Valencian Shoe Entrepreneurs Association warns about this (Avecal), which they have already identified increase in individual layoffs in some factories and, above all, a significant increase in applications-related queries ERE and ERTEAccording to José María Escrigas, legal advisor of the employers’ association.
It is no less the case. Following the strong increase in orders recorded in the previous two years, eThe province’s shoe exports are down 4.2% so far this yearalthough in reality the practice has followed a downward evolution. Although there was still an increase in shipments in the first months, from April onwards the numbers entered negative territory and The contraction in sales in recent months has already exceeded 20%. According to ICEX data.
To this we must add the situation of the national market. production decline sector in the Valencian Community 17.8% to October, according to the latest data from the Generalitat Statistics Portal.
The problem is that there is no sign of a new change in trend in the short term. «The decline in consumption will cause customers to enter the new season with shopping More stock in warehousesSo logically they will place smaller orders for next year,” says the Avecal president. Marian Cano. So the decline in production will continue.
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Faced with this situation, many manufacturers began to do the math and see workforce adjustments as inevitable. First of all, at the beginning of the year many forced to fade into ordinary obscurityMost of the workers they employ discontinuous constantIt started to be implemented by taking into account the criteria brought by the Labor Inspectorate. Specifically, the labor authority has made this transformation mandatory for all employees in the sector who have worked at least 87.5% of the normal working day in previous years, despite complaints from employers who warned that they had already referenced some exceptional exercises. epidemic.
This shape of the discontinuous constant is the shape so far. brought flexibility to the sector Business peaks recorded in this activity need to be undertaken, which fluctuate depending on the onset of different seasons. However, as a result of the review, they argued that shoes no longer operated with only two distinct collections (spring/summer and autumn/winter) and should therefore be seen as a permanent activity without such contracts.
Given the change in the cycle in this sense, some companies have tried to implement the fourth article of the national shoe convention. non-traumatic solutions for template settings. Among these, possibility of some workers moving to temporary permanent positions as a volunteer. However, according to the employers’ association, Labor strongly opposed the initial cases, which have already been registered, leaving manufacturers with no alternative.
“Sector continues to have a distinct temporality, has multiple collections throughout the year and needs flexibility to respond to these fluctuations. General criteria not applicable without taking into account the reality of each activity», insists the president of Avecal, aware of the “anxiety” that exists in the industry. Marián Cano therefore regrets that the only alternative left to employers is to apply for ERE or ERTE; This causes harm to workers as well as producers due to the loss of stability of the workforce and the skills they provide. to collect.
In this sense, the employer’s legal counsel assures that individual layoffs, albeit small, have already been recorded and that the main offices in the region have already received a large number of inquiries regarding the possibility of imposing cuts.
In total they operate throughout the entire Valencian Community 1,948 companies Shoe industry employed only in main producing municipalities almost 18,000 workers.