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On April 8, the Deputy Minister of Finance, Juan Alberto Londoño, raised the possibility that Holidays of the second semester of the year become business days. The proposal emerged as a strategy to mitigate the impact that the health emergency has had on the economy.
The initiative is in the exploration stage and has generated several criticisms from unions, which have expressed their concern about the effects that this idea may have on sectors such as tourism and commerce.
Like Colombia, several countries have considered removing or postponing holidays or vacations as a form of economic revival. Below, we present some of the proposals in different parts of the world.
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Debate for removing holidays in Chile
In the Latin American country, experts debate the possibility of suspending the holidays, 14 days in the 2020 calendar, in order to face the economic crisis due to the pandemic.
This as a result of a letter that Rodrigo Icarán, a master’s student in economics from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (PUC), sent to the editor of the newspaper ‘El Mercurio’. Icarán proposed to eliminate some of the holidays, once the contingency had passed.
Given the proposal, the Chilean newscast ‘Meganoticias’ consulted the Minister of Economy, Lucas Palacios, about the viability of this initiative.
“It is a measure that must be studied very carefully. There are almost 600,000 jobs that depend on tourism, and holidays can serve to reactivate all those jobs, ” Palacios pointed out.
The Ministry of Education in Chile has decided to bring forward the winter holidays in the school year.
On the other hand, on March 25, the Minister of Education of that country, Raúl Figueroa, announced that they would bring winter break to the last two weeks of April. Because of that the school year will last until the end of December.
The measure generated criticism from schools, as this would mean months of continuous study without rest.
According to Alejandra Arratia, executive director of the Chilean organization Educación 2020, in conversation with the news program ‘Tele13’, “It is essential to consider that the processes of accompanying students are just beginning to stabilize in a more systematic way, so interrupting them with vacations is completely inconvenient at this point in the pandemic.”
Defer holidays in Spain
Provinces like Andalucia and Castellón have proposed to postpone the holidays to reactivate commerce and tourism after the contingency.
In some provinces of the European country, local councils have proposed to postpone some holidays within their calendar, due to the contingency. These celebrations that were already planned and can have an effect on the commercial and tourist sector.
In the province of AndalusiaOn April 16, the city of Seville city council approved the change of two holidays within its calendar. The alteration that has already become effective corresponds to the festival of the Seville Fair, scheduled in the calendar to be held on April 29 and which will be celebrated on September 23.
According to the Spanish newspaper ‘ABC’, The decision was made considering that it is one of the most emblematic festivals in the city. As well as an event that promotes economic recovery and employment.
I mean
Likewise, the Spanish newspaper Van La Vanguardia ’made a list of festivities celebrated on local holidays in the different provinces of Spain that have been postponed or canceled as a result of the pandemic.
This is the case of provinces like Murcia, La Rioja and Galicia that are still waiting to continue their traditional celebrations.
The European Commission proposes to shorten the working day
The institution developed a salary subsidy plan to avoid layoffs during the contingency. The proposal seeks to encourage companies to reduce working hours and could cost 100 billion euros in secured loans for the countries that make up the European Union (EU).
According to the British news agency ‘Reuters’, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, pointed out that the initiative to shorten the working day, inspired by the successful German scheme ‘Kurzarbeit’, “It is intended to help Italy, Spain and all other countries that have been affected”.
The ‘Kurzarbeit’ model is a measure introduced in Germany in the 1950s consisting of temporary wage replacement aid. The news agency
‘EFE’ reported that companies such as Volkswagen, Bosch and Adidas have already made use of this option.
Similarly, ‘EFE’ pointed out that the German government has just reformed the regulations to add that the social contributions that the company continued to pay for the worker will be assumed by the Federal Employment Agency (BA).
(Also read: WHO: the new coronavirus ‘will be with us for a long time’)
‘Traffic light’ of flexibility in Ecuador
The initiative aims to monitor the progress of the virus in the country in more depth.
The Ecuadorian government implemented a new system on April 13 to resume economic activities progressively. The regional ‘traffic light’ will not only allow tracking of those infected by geolocation, but will also help maintain the restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The measure will categorize the different provinces of the country into three levels: red, orange and green. The colors that will be altered depending on the number of infected and the response capacity.
The results will determine mobilization and activities, avoiding crowds. Likewise, the color will allow to order the opening of establishments and the outlets to buy food and medicines.
According to the agencia EFE ’news agency, the government minister, María Paula Romo, said that the signaling would start in red throughout the national territory.
Selective quarantine in Argentina
In early April, the president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, and the governors of the 23 provinces evaluated the possibilities of making isolation more flexible.
According to the Argentine newspaper ‘Clarín’, the government is designing a targeted quarantine that would take effect on April 27. The proposal focuses on establishing the parameters of the restrictions that will become effective in each province.
The model that will finish designing the emergency committee formed to deal with the coronavirus it will be guided by criteria according to population, economic activity, transport and epidemiological situation.
Likewise, the government will make a mapping of what activities may be resumed under certain conditions. The final decision will be up to the governors, to ensure what is most convenient for their territory.
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