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In a crowd of people who gather at food banks every day because they can no longer feed, volunteers notice more and more new faces. Many of them are workers and freelancers, who always earned enough to eat before the coronavirus quarantine.
“People admit they are ashamed, they have never had time to order food,” says Bruno. “Some turn to neighbors who are reluctant to ask for help.”
The increasing number of professionals queuing for bread is a sign that relatively reliable European safety nets are beginning to shrink or are unable to catch new vulnerable groups, despite extensive new emergency programs. With the economy going through a deep recession and the threat of a slow recovery, it is questionable whether we will not see greater income inequality in a region that has traditionally tackled this problem more successfully than the United States.
Unexpected closings affect those who can’t wait for the support that usually comes with a permanent employment contract. This includes small business owners, freelancers, or part-time workers, who generally rely on job turnover in industries such as tourism, hotels, and restaurants.
“Even the most advanced and comprehensive system has significant gaps that leave some workers,” said Stefano Scarpetta, director of employment, labor and social affairs for the OECD in Paris.
The consequences of the crisis for the low-skilled and low-paid are a particularly painful problem, as many of them have just ended before the pandemic. They don’t have enough savings to survive quarantine, whether they lost their jobs or suffered a cut in wages.
Poverty rates for people working across Europe since 2008 increased to almost 10 percent. In the UK, half of workers who are at risk of losing their jobs or offered fewer hours or lower wages work in occupations where they earn less than £ 10 an hour, below the national minimum wage, according to McKinsey & Co.
Officials who monitor UK national death statistics report that a slow and protracted economic recovery could lead to “a large number of deaths linked to people being pushed into poverty or long-term unemployment.”
© Capital Pictures / Scanpix
Even more “yellow vests”?
Conrado Giménez, head of the non-profit organization Fundación Madrina in Madrid, says that he and his food bank volunteers fed some 400 families a month before the crisis. They now feed 2,500 families daily, including many waiters, chefs, and other professionals.
“No crisis is like this,” said Giménez.
When the most vulnerable groups in society suffer the most, a health crisis that has turned into an economic crisis can have long-term social consequences.
This may mean retaliation by voters during elections or emerging unrest. Less than two years ago in France, an increase in the fuel tax, believed to affect poor rural workers, was enough to incite the “yellow vests” to protests that escalated into national unrest. In Italy, young voters with limited job protection helped the populist Five Star party come to power.
“There is a great risk that many people will put on their yellow vests again and take to the streets to rebel,” said Julien Damon, a sociologist and researcher at the Jean Jaures Foundation. “I don’t think it’s realistic to completely transform the pay scale in a few months.”
Governments have tried to assist in the development of emergency labor protection programs. France has urged companies to pay bonuses to the lowest-paid staff and has promised to raise health workers’ wages after the crisis.
The latest € 55 billion stimulus package in Italy includes tax cuts, temporary subsidies of € 600 to € 1,000 for self-employed workers and special emergency income for people who are not entitled to social security benefits.
In Spain, the government suspended mortgage payments to some people and allowed part-time workers to participate in unemployment programs. It has also stepped up plans to establish a living wage this summer to help lower-income families.
The greater impact on day and self-employed workers reflects in part the damage to tourism, travel and leisure. This was most noticeable to staff in bars, hotels and cinemas across the region. Southern Europe, which relies heavily on tourism, has been particularly affected. In the Italian regions of Campania, Calabria and Sicily, requests to food banks increased by around 60%.
The recession has also highlighted the fact that European policy makers have not made enough effort since the last crisis to fill the gap between winners and losers in the labor market. Those with permanent contracts have a harder time firing, so they do better during the recession, as evidenced by unemployment figures.
Almost 75 percent. Of the 905,000 workers who lost their jobs in Spain in March and April had temporary contracts. According to the EU statistics agency Eurostat, in 2019, almost 16% worked under such contracts. euro area workers.
In France, the government introduced an unemployment insurance plan for self-employed workers last year, but benefits cannot exceed € 800 and are granted for a maximum period of six months. “The end of the crisis could lead to a sharp increase in the number of people without resources,” said Eric Chevee, vice president of the French Federation of Small Businesses, CPME.
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