"The return of the 57,123 euros does not correspond, in any way, to the non-hiring of the unemployed." This is how the Arrecife City Council has responded to the Coalición Canaria group, which accused the government group of having had to return that sum from the Employment Plan of the past year "due to irresponsibility."
"CC and its spokesperson, Echedey Eugenio, are shooting knowing that we have used the money well to hire the unemployed," lamented the Councilor for Employment and the Local Development Agency, Saro González.
Along with its response, the Consistory has sent a technical report detailing how the money received from the Canarian Employment Service was used, which could only be used to cover "salary and social security costs of unemployed workers hired for the days actually worked."
Thus, although the 50 people planned in the Plan were hired, the report explains that the days they did not attend their post had to be deducted. In some cases, it specifies that there were "unjustified absences" and, in others, "temporary disabilities (common illness, work accident, non-work accident, occupational disease)", reaching "up to 50% of the staff in one of these circumstances during the project."
In addition, it was also necessary to deduct from the amount of the subsidy the "paid and unenjoyed vacations due to being in a situation of temporary disability at the end of the contract", as well as the "periods of inactivity produced between the date of dismissal that originated and the new replacement hires, as a consequence of the exceptional health crisis caused by the coronavirus (Covid-19), and before the state of alarm decreed by the Government of Spain, which caused the delay of the procedures."
In total, the subsidy amounted to 610,800 euros, which was the amount that had been calculated to cover the total salary of those 50 workers. But when justifying the subsidy, 553,677 could be attributed to the Canarian Employment Service, resulting in that difference of 57,123 euros. And the subsidy established that only the days actually worked would be subsidized, having to assume the City Council "absences or temporary disabilities, or other circumstances."