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The Association of Banqueting and Event Centers of Chile, Abach, is very troubled because its members cannot work, and they harshly accuse the authorities that have them unemployed for the health requirements resulting from the coronavirus pandemic and that prevents them from carrying out one of their main sources of income: the marriage festivities.
“The Government arbitrarily discriminates against us by not allowing us to operate and will be responsible for the bankruptcy of 9,000 SMEs. And the bankruptcy of this sector also implies losing at least 1,500 million dollars in infrastructure of event centers and another 1,200 million dollars in investment of production centers “, points out Sofia Jottar, spokeswoman for the Abach.
The organization indicated that the health authority has not wanted to address their technical proposals and that there is an obvious asymmetry in the restrictive measures applied to similar items that are already operating. And they add that they are discriminated against by restricting the maximum number of attendees to activities carried out by event producers and banquets.
They argue that restaurants already operate with capacity proportional to their square meters, but that in the case of banqueters and event producers the same measurement is not used, but rather that maximum attendees are determined for each activity, despite the size of the venue. .
“The Government regulated activities such as restaurants, bars and ceremonies, granting them capacity per m2 in relation to their facilities, but it has not used the same standard for our sector, imposing a maximum number of attendees, regardless of the size of the place where the activities are carried out”, adds the representative of the union.
Sofia Jottar explain what “For the Government, a 25 m2 living room and a 300 m2 marquee are the same as a 1,000 m2 event center that is 6 meters high. It is clear that there is a lack of important technical information, because the spatial conditions and ventilation are very different. For example, a person infected in a 25 m2 living room, with 50 guests, in a range of 4 hours will infect 58% of the attendees. But if we have 400 guests in a closed space of 1,500 m2 and 7.5 meters high, in the same time range it would infect 0.8% of the attendees “.
The president of the National Multigremial, Juan Pablo Swett, indicates that “Most of the countries of the world have been able to establish technical differences between these sectors, except in Chile, so the government must urgently help this area, which is made up of 9 thousand SMEs, doing the opposite would mean violating the measures of urgent reactivation that the government itself has promoted and incidentally leave 250 thousand people and their families without income “.
What does the union propose?
- Be measured with the same yardstick as other related sectors, that is, the capacity is determined by m2 and not by a priori limited capacity.
- That rooms 4.5 meters high, with ventilation of doors and windows, are considered as “open spaces”.
- The curfew prevents the development of the sector, so it is proposed to use a health passport as a safe-conduct with 100% traceability and frequency limitation.
- Carry out tests and measure temperature when entering activities, maintaining contact with the health authority.
- Have cleaning staff in bathrooms and bars permanently.
- Establish special handling protocols for care personnel.
- Dance floor capacity of 1 m2 per person.
- Allow the realization of an event that cannot be postponed via prior request for a provisional permit, which provides for each person who attends to fill out a health declaration (social health passport), by means of which they undertake to save the necessary care.
- Various economic support measures: support in partial return to work, with a subsidy from the Work Portfolio; extension of the Employment Protection Law until March 2021; not pay municipal taxes or licenses during the period of prohibition to work; I did not pay Income Tax for the 2020-2021 period to return liquidity to the industry; preferential access to Fogape credits, which have been granted to 15% of the companies that requested it and for 0.3 months of sale; extension of the term to pay Fogape loans, and support for the reintegration of workers to work, with a subsidy for incorporation for 3 months equivalent to that of new hiring.
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