Economic and social actors have met on March 10 to analyse the coronavirus from an economic and business perspective. The Basque Government has brought together the Minister for Economic Development and Infrastructure, Arantxa Tapia, the Minister for Finance and Economy, Pedro Azpiazu, the Minister for Tourism, Trade and Consumption, Sonia Pérez, the Vice-Councillors of the aforementioned departments, and the Deputy Minister for Employment, Marcos Muro. Also the Director of Labor and Justice, Elena Pérez. Of the business associations, representatives of Confesbask, Adegi, Cebek and whatever; of the Chambers of Commerce of Álava, Bilbao and Gipuzkoa; and of the unions UGT, CCOO, ELA and LAB. Foreign Members of the Economic Promotion of Álava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa have also attended. Here we can read the chronicle of the Basque Government on this meeting.

The Basque Government has concluded that: "In the Basque Country, it is still too early to advance possible measures to alleviate hypothetical conditions, considering that there is still no case, no comparable and measurable data in companies to ensure a condition. Nevertheless, the Basque Government and the agents have agreed to maintain direct and continuous communication to detect the problems of the future, which are not occurring, but which is not ruled out, as a result of the management of human resources and the foreseeable delay in goods coming from abroad". He has pointed out that the priority is health and care for people and "the Department of Health is already paying attention and care to the entire Basque society".

LAB and ELA trade unions publish a shared reading

Following the meeting, ELA and LAB published a joint statement explaining the reasons. It says: "It looks like we all saw the problem coming. All but the Basque Government. Once again, the Urkullu Executive has acted unexpectedly, badly and late."

Both trade unions agreed at the meeting on the need to address coronavirus prevention in the workplace. But, according to ELA and LAB, "Osalan and the Department of Health, as far as the work centers are concerned, are missing. The government has put everything about prevention in the hands of companies, without defining any criteria." The trade unions have insisted on dealing with situations that may arise in the field of employment and have insisted that "either the government has put forward any initiative or the employers have put forward that this situation will generate SRE. The only thing that can be considered a proposal has been the possibility of opening a credit line for companies. This shows once again that the government is working for employers and only for their interests."

Both trade unions have stressed the need to meet with the Departments of Labour and Health, as well as with Osalan and the Labour Inspectorate, "to address the real problems that are being created in the workplaces".