The Regional Monitoring Commission of the Agricultural Employment Promotion Program (PFEA) today unanimously approved, in a meeting chaired by the delegate of the Government of Spain in Andalusia, Pedro Fernández, the provincial distribution of funds that the State allocates to Andalusia through this program for 2023-2024. The regional allocation amounts to 194.8 million euros, which represents an increase of 5% compared to the current one and an increase of 26.7% compared to 2018.
During the meeting, Fernández highlighted the double objective that these funds achieve, allowing on the one hand to improve and create new infrastructures in the municipalities where it is developed and, on the other hand, to guarantee employment and income to unemployed workers, preferably agricultural workers, in times outside of campaigns.”
Currently and until September, the PFEA 2022 continues in force, “which will close with 1,881 works executed in 775 municipalities of Andalusia, almost 5% more than in the previous one; 126,592 contracts, 14% more, and an increase in day labourers and day labourers of 11%, which translates into 2.13 million days”. “These figures give us an idea of the value that this program has for the municipalities, since we guarantee their inhabitants employment -- and therefore income -- to their inhabitants, which results in the economy of the locality and in fixing the population to the territory giving it security for the future.”
The amount approved today corresponds to the costs of hiring and Social Security of the workers, to which must be added the contributions of the rest of the administrations (Junta de Andalucía, provincial councils and municipalities) for the acquisition of the materials. For this reason, the delegate has valued “the cooperation between the state, regional and local administrations, through its highest representative, the president of the FAMP as a fundamental element to guarantee the quality of life of the citizens”.
Reduction of days and digital divide
This program is framed within the Active Employment Policies managed by the Public Service of State Employment (SEPE) in Andalusia. It was determined in 2022 with Royal Decree 4/2022 and later with Royal Decree 18/2022 of 18 October that the reduction in the number of real days paid to access agricultural income in favor of agricultural workers must be equal to or greater than 20 and 10 paid days, respectively, considering the 35 paid days that were historically necessary to access agricultural income accredited.
The PFEA of 2022 introduced as a novelty, framed in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), a training program in digital literacy aimed at women in the rural environment. “It is about taking a step further and not only generating wealth, but also bringing together and providing the women who live in these municipalities with the knowledge to access new technologies, breaking the digital divide and opening new opportunities to the active search for employment,” explained Fernández.
This program, which began in May 2022, is valid until next year, and benefits women who have been hired with the PFEA or who have been hired in the Program since its inception in 1997. The courses are face-to-face, free and with a duration of 26 hours each.
It is the State Public Employment Service (SEPE) that allocates credits from its annual budgets to subsidize the wage and business contribution costs of unemployed workers, preferably agricultural contingents, hired by local corporations. These contracts must be aimed at the execution of projects of general and social interest, provided that they fall within the competence of local corporations and that they are executed under direct administration or under adjudication.
In the Regional Commission, the president of the FAMP, Fernando Rodríguez Villalobos, representatives of the territorial coordination of the Public Service of State Employment (SEPE), of the regional and local administrations, as well as trade unions and agrarian organizations that have given the go-ahead to the distribution of funds by province have participated.
From now on, the sub-delegates and sub-delegates will convene the provincial commissions so that the municipalities can start presenting the projects destined for 2023-2024. It is precisely the local authorities that are responsible for determining the activities that will provide employment in their municipalities thanks to these funds, mainly agricultural ones, the sector of works and services of general and social interest, previously consulted with the social partners.