Spain’s Most Indebted Region Fails To Pay Its Social Workers
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Nearly 100,000 social service workers in the Spanish region of Catalonia may not receive any salary for the month of July, claimed a report by AFP on Wednesday, after the Catalan regional government announced that they would be suspending social services’ payments due to a “problem of liquidity.”
Nearly 100,000 social service workers in the Spanish region of Catalonia may not receive any salary for the month of July, claimed a report by AFP on Wednesday, after the Catalan regional government announced that they would be suspending social services’ payments due to a “problem of liquidity.”
According to El País newspaper, the Catalan regional government had been short of nearly 400 million euros ($492 million) to pay for its social services, which included privately managed hospitals, old people’s homes and disabled centres.
A spokeswoman for the Catalan regional government’s economy ministry blamed the central Spanish government for failing to provide the region with enough funds; though she the situation “will start to return to normal in September”.
“Liquidity for these payments depends on them (the central government),” added Francesc Homs, another representative for the Catalan government, in an interview with The Guardian.
[quote]”They should meet their obligations, and they are not doing so,” he said.[/quote]Catalonia had previously indicated that it would join Valencia and Murcia in asking the central government for more money from a new regional bailout fund for financing deficits and refinancing existing debt.
But on Tuesday, the Catalan government boycotted a meeting with Spanish Budget Minister Cristobal Montoro, in protest of debt limits for the region.
“It doesn’t make sense to attend a meeting where everything is already decided,” said Homs, who blasted Montoro for trying to force regional finance chiefs to stick to a joint deficit target of 1.5 percent this year.
Andalucia’s treasury councillor Carmen Martinez Aguayo also walked out of the meeting without voting, telling reporters the central government limits would mean “indiscriminate and totally illogical cuts in services such as health and education.”
Nevertheless, the implication of Catalonia’s lack of funds has led to widespread concern among the region’s social institutions.
“There is a feeling of disappointment and worry,” said Laia Grabulosa, the director of the Catalan Confederation of Social Services Association.
[quote]“We want a calendar for payments and we want to know when we are going to receive the money for the month of July,” she added.[/quote]Related: Pain in Spain As Austerity Reaches $80bn
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“This (suspending social service payments) is very bad,” noted Sonia Martinez, president of the Catalan Federation of Child Care and Education Organisations, which looks after nearly 2,000 children.
“It affects the maintenance of premises, water supply, electricity. These are children who are under our care round the clock,” she said. “We have to educate them, feed them, take care of them and this needs a lot of staff.”
The Catalonia regional government has promised that the next payment to social workers would include past arrears. Nevertheless, the region, which has an economy the size of Portugal’s, will still need to turn to the central government for help once again, particularly with a debt worth 42 billion euros.
