[ad_1]
Turbus, a company founded in 1948 dedicated to the passenger transport sector, is going through a difficult time. The four Diez González brothers meet every Friday to closely monitor the tough financial situation the company is going through.
The meetings have been held since March, the month in which the company’s more than 1,500 buses were paralyzed as a result of the health crisis that engulfs the country, according to La Tercera.
It was in this context that it was decided, by mutual agreement, welcome 2,600 company workers to the Employment Protection Law. The application of these regulations has the company at a difficult time.
During the last seven months, the Diez clan has supported the company with more than US $ 15 million, paying for the deficit that the company generates each month.
José Antonio Errandonea, Executive Director, ensures that if there was no contribution from the owners, the company would have already had to declare bankruptcy or initiate an asset liquidation process.
Thus, thanks to other businesses – such as the importer of spare parts for buses and trucks Caren and the Coppelia and Contempor ice cream parlor – the clan has managed to keep the company afloat.
Despite the activation of the buses on the road in August and the authorization in recent weeks by the Government to make interregional trips, the numbers are still negative, and supporters’ input is reaching a peak.
The problem worsens in November, as it is necessary to reinstate the workers suspended by the regulations of the Employment Protection Law, since the seven lines under the unemployment insurance allowed by the Law have already been exhausted.
Added to this is that the company does not meet the requirements to extend said suspension until January 2021.
Errandonea pointed out that “What has allowed this industry to survive in this time has been the Employment Protection Law. An extension was made to the regulation that was promulgated in early September. This, which in the headline was read as a five-month extension, only considers workers who are suspended by act of authority, which is that circumstance where, for some health reason, such as quarantine, certain businesses have to leave to operate. The extension was not allowed, in practice, because it is not funded for suspensions by mutual agreement “.
Requesting support
The context has forced the company to seek support from ministries. During the last week, a meeting was held together with advisers from the Ministry of Labor to publicize the situation that afflicts them, an instance where the representatives were asked that their employees can continue to be protected under the Emeplo Protection Law.
During Thursday, representatives of the bus unions, as well as Turbus executives, came to the Ministry of Economy to deliver a letter detailing the hard time the industry is going through, which includes 35,000 workers.
This week they will turn to the Ministry of Finance, an opportunity in which the executives of Turbus will have an appointment with the undersecretary Francisco Moreno.
Despite all the efforts, so far they have not been able to obtain a satisfactory response from the government authorities.
This is why the company is already working on an alternative plan. Two weeks into November, where they will have to reinstate 2,600 suspended workers, time is short.
If the scenario does not change for the firm, they will have to begin their third separation process so far this year.
In this regard, Errandonea points out that they have been “very transparent with our union organizations: we had the capacity to support them while the Employment Protection Law was in force, if it is not in force, the reality is that we would have to make an additional reduction in personnel, because we need a staff more in line with current sales levels. Not reaching the endowment to operate today, but one that we would need in about nine more months ”.
This endowment will probably be less than the 4 thousand employees that currently in the company, which is 30% less than what existed in December 2019, when the staff reached 6 thousand workers.
“As executives, we have already alerted the owners of the company that if the situation does not change, we would have to make additional staff reductions,” says the executive, adding that “these settlements would be financed with direct credits from the company, or they could be contributions from the family through cash flows from other businesses ”.
[ad_2]
