Spain ... economy, pain, protests: what's the future?

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

How about this one?  "Staff aged over 53 can stay home on 68% salary, says Telefónica"

Well I wish to hell I had a contract with them.  Stay at home?  Fine:  no expenses on petrol, depreciation on car, fewer work clothes to buy,  wash, iron and wear out, no need to buy lunch every day, more time on my hands, far less stress.  Whoopee!!!

[Nova]

At 68% salary, would those employees not be better off on paro?  For the first two years anyway...

And for most people, certainly in my case, 68% of my salary wouldn't even cover all my bills and loan repayments, let alone allow me a sneaky spend on some actual food!

And presumably, whilst employees are retained at 68% salary they are not at liberty to look for other jobs.  Even if they weren't generally considered too old to get one.  And they're on track for a lower pension.

I don't like it.  Not at all...

Edit:  Not to mention that the remaining full-time employees will be having to work longer hours under more pressure to cover for the missing staff - without any extra compensation in their wage.  I should know.  My co-cashier was made redundant and then the bank merged with Banesto, doubling the cash desk volume whilst halving its staff..  Since then I have been doing the work of not two, but at least three people.  Am I paid any more for that?  Am I fuck.

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

Excellent point about those who remain in the job Nova. At some point you have to ask who got the better deal. 

[Nova]

At some point you have to ask who got the better deal. 

Neither, in my opinion.  It's a pretty abusive deal all round.  I imagine many of the employees that age have been with the company plenty long enough that if they were offered proper redundancy, they would be eligible for the maximum redundancy payout, which I believe is 42 mensualidades.  At a totally guessed monthly salary of €1,800, that's a lump sum payout of over €75,000!  Plus maximum paro of (I believe) 80% of salary for two years.  How is that not better than permanent garden leave at 68% salary?  Because it would be far more expensive to the company, that's why!  By putting employees on what is effectively indefinite garden leave, Telefonica is just trying to avoid giving workers their full severance rights.

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

This is tremendously sad.  I left for university a few days after I turned 17 and except for a few months, never lived with my parents again thank fucking god.  I cannot imagine what it is like to have to live with them a moment beyond that.

80% of Spaniards under thirty still live at home with parents

[Nova]

I had to go back to live with my parents a couple of times after leaving university.  Once I had a car, I used to just drive out and spend a few hours sitting in a lay-by just to get some time on my own