MADRID, 26 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Second Vice President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, has insisted this Wednesday that the dismissal must "advance in European terms" and be "reparative" and "restorative", and not focus solely on compensation.

"We are going to address the causes and then the compensation will be different, depending on the impact it can have on people's lives. This is what Spain does not do and what is considered in Europe. The problem is in the restitution of causes" , said Díaz at an economic conference organized by the Association of Economic Information Journalists (APIE).

Díaz has recalled that the latest labor reform does not touch dismissal, as promised, although he has recognized that the new regulations "raise severance pay", since "it raises wages and makes dismissals more expensive" as "collateral effects".

The minister has pointed out that the dismissals of the future, with that "restorative compensation", must take into account factors such as age, training or sex, although "it will be the dialogue" that incorporates it.

"Spain is different in terms of dismissal. Spain has a problem. We are working with a rule from the year 1980," he said, referring to the Workers' Statute.

The Minister of Labor has once again asked the social agents to sit down at the negotiating table of the Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC), paralyzed since the beginning of May.

"The AENC is a competition of the social agents in which I am never going to get involved (...). They have not been at that table since May 5. I refer to the facts, this is how it is and they have not become to sit down", explained Díaz, who has also pointed out that the agreement data until September "are very bad", with 653 signed agreements and an affectation of just over 1.5 million workers in the country.

The head of Labor has once again urged them to sit down to negotiate and has expressed her respect for the "autonomy of the will of the parties." However, she has referred to the warnings of the vice president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Luis de Guindos, and his recommendation to "raise wages in Europe by 5%, because the risk of delinquency and impoverishment is absolutely real".

It has also ruled on the Minimum Interprofessional Salary (SMI), a matter that is the responsibility of the Executive, although it has avoided revealing an amount of increase. Díaz recalled that the Government has asked the group of experts to update the calculation to establish 60% of the average Spanish salary, as the Government promised for 2023.

Díaz also spoke on this day about the rise in mortgage prices "up to 46% due to the impact of the Euribor", after the ECB rate hike.

The minister has warned that a "historic transfer of income from citizens to financial institutions" is taking place, at the same time that the population is being "brutally impoverished".

The Government and the banks are working to respond to this situation, although, for Díaz, "the proposal of the financial entities is not enough."

"The approach is thinking about vulnerable people and this is also about the middle classes. For a family of two members with two children and 30,000 euros, this becomes a real problem. It is not just about embracing vulnerabilities, it is about the middle classes ", he stressed.

Díaz has supported, as he did a few days ago, CaixaBank's proposal to freeze mortgages for a year, and has denounced, once again, the "superlative" benefits of financial entities.

Díaz has appealed to the "principle of prudence" to analyze the economic situation in the coming months and has clarified that the geopolitical scenario "does not depend on Spain or the European Union."

The Minister of Labor has made this clarification in reference to the forecasts of the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF), which this Tuesday raised a technical recession in the coming quarters.

"We are in a small fall. This is good news. AIReF is not proposing a recession, but is saying that the impact may be less", said Díaz, and has insisted that "these are forecasts that are later permanently rectified ".

He has also warned that, in the event that the crisis intensifies, the labor reform is designed to protect employment and the productive fabric.

"Absolute tranquility. We must never again return to that Spain where if there is a crisis we hit companies and workers," said Díaz.