Past, present and future of ERTEs as a damping mechanism for job destruction in the face of economic crises

Abstract

ERTEs have become a successful internal flexibility mechanism that, during the COVID-19 health crisis, helped prevent the destruction of millions of jobs. However, their origin dates back to 1980, and, although they were promoted during the 2008 financial crisis, their use at the time was very limited.

Thus, a historical tour through the main regulatory changes of the figure will be made to try and understand why the regulatory measures adopted during the pandemic regarding ERTEs made a significant impact on their perception by businessmen as a solid alternative to collective dismissal.

Finally, it will be exposed how the experience accumulated during the health crisis has been used during the 2021 labor reform to provide this figure with a new, more flexible and modern regulatory framework, as a crucial mechanism to face future economic crises.