105 new employees joined the Renta Básica programme yesterday for the next six months. Here they will have the opportunity to receive training, reskilling and have a stable income that will provide them with a small family respite. Some are returning because they have not been able to find work, but for many it is their first time and they are optimistic.
This is the case of María Luisa Burgos, who says that "she couldn't find a job when she went to apply to companies, and that is why she has applied for the Basic Income programme". She has experience in cleaning companies, as a shop assistant and carer for the elderly, but says that "cleaning companies don't want workers as old as me. I am very happy to have joined".
Rosa Planelles explained her particular case. "My reason for being here is my age. We are getting older and although I have a great professional background, companies are already looking at my age. Times are hard. I set up a small business during the pandemic, but it is becoming more and more difficult to carry it forward and I needed to have some respite, and to have some income at home from time to time". Planelles encouraged "anyone who needs help to go to the Employment Promotion Office. They open their doors, they have a lot of empathy and are doing a lot of good for the whole municipality".
Omara Valle's case is different. She is only 22 years old, has little work experience and is the mother of a one-year-old baby. "I am very young and I have a little girl. The companies' schedules are incompatible with her, the nursery in summer is more difficult for her to get in. Renta Básica gives me the opportunity to work and have my child with compatible working hours".
Fomento del Empleo stresses the importance of the programme, which has become a support for people at risk of social exclusion or with difficulties in finding a job. The aim is for it to serve as a stepping stone for all the unemployed.
An opportunity
The Mayor of Mijas, Josele González (PSOE), and the CEO of Mijas Servicios Complementarios, Laura Moreno (PSOE), welcomed them yesterday. According to Moreno, "in total, at present, there are already 500 people hired who are working on the streets and in some of the municipal buildings. Forty percent are over 50 and long-term unemployed, a very important age group for the government team because they are those who have fewer opportunities in the labour market right now, and this age group is being discriminated against by employment plans".
The labour market is very complicated for this group, who do not find offers that adapt to their characteristics or do not fit the current profiles for companies, which in many cases bet on young people with less experience and who receive lower salaries. In view of this situation, González explained that "in this programme we give opportunities to long-term unemployed people, people at risk of social exclusion, some chronic users of Social Services and Inclusion, there are also very young people who are waiting for their first job opportunity or elderly people who cannot find a job opportunity".
Of the six months of the new workers' contract, one is for training, and the working hours are 5 or 8 hours, depending on the personal circumstances of each one. According to González, "what we want to focus on now is those people who have been expelled from the labour market who are also looking for an opportunity. In some cases they are missing months of social security contributions in order to reach retirement sooner. Here, they have the support of their local council. We have active policies designed for them, to adapt jobs so that they have that opportunity".
In this regard, González underlined the local government's commitment to this type of action to continue to increase employment in the town: "we have one of the best employability figures in the last 16 years, with the lowest unemployment rate since that date, and this is largely due to the efforts that the local government has been making in recent years, thanks to the promotion of active employment policies, with programmes such as Renta Básica, public-private collaboration and the implementation of various lines of training adapted to the real needs of the labour market".
June call for applications
This group of workers belongs to the February call for Basic Income. There is still another one left this year, the one published in June. The lists will not be published until after the summer. According to Mariam Mustafa Embarek, manager of Mijas Servicios Complementarios, "we inform that from the call for applications in June, we will soon make the evaluation and the provisional lists will be published in September or October, so that all those registered will know about the list. A provisional list will be published and it will show the people admitted and excluded and the reason for exclusion, they will have time to rectify the situation, so don't forget to go to "Fomento" or to call".
In addition, some 60 people have not been able to join in this call because they have not been located or are unable to do so at the moment. These will be incorporated during the year.
Share it with this link: https://mijasint.com/?a=28147
