Interview with Íñigo de la Peña, president of the College of Social Graduates of Guipúzcoa

Íñigo de la Peña He has been president of the Official College of Social Graduates of Guipúzcoa since 2020. With a diploma in labor relations and a degree in law from the University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Íñigo has a master's degree in organizational management in the knowledge economy at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. He currently practices as a lawyer and social graduate in Igarki Labor Consulting.

What aspects would you highlight in the relationship that the social graduate schools maintain with the administration? Do you think that the group has felt supported by the Mutual Collaborators with Social Security and specifically by Fraternidad-Muprespa?

We are a group that adapts perfectly to any situation or change. This has been seen in the pandemic with all the processing that has had to be carried out for ERTES.

The group has been subjected to great pressure, and has known how to adapt to the situation and situation that required so many ERTES to be processed in record time. I believe that this has been the main value and notable capacity of both the Administration and ours.

Nor should we leave aside all the digital transformation that the company has had.Social security in recent years, both in benefits and treasury management. In that aspect I also think that the new transformation on the part of the group is notable, since we went from a system that was practically analog, with the bulletins of price made by machine to any financial institution so that the charge and quote of the company could be produced, to a system that we now have completely digital in which a series of computer concepts must be handled to be able to carry out those quotes .

The relationship we have with mutual insurance companies is a close relationship built over many years.

We work together in the management of work accidents and occupational diseases, as well as in the supervision or review of how benefits derived from temporary disability are being paid, and this relationship has been reinforced with the processing and management of cessations of activity, and we have had to adapt to the management and processing of the ERTES of the different labor departments of each Autonomous Community, and with the different mutual insurance companies that operate in the Spanish market.

In the case of Fraternidad-Muprespa, is one of the mutual societies that collaborates the most with the group in the processing of cessations of activity, greatly facilitating requests and successive extensions.

What demands does the group you represent make, both before the administration and before society in general?

Since the beginning of the social graduates, we depend on the Ministry of Labor and we have always been treated as collaborators of the Social security and the entire area of ​​Administration that has to do with labor relations. Therefore, we want to value that relationship, that we are treated as collaborators and that we add added value to both the Social security like all those administrations that regulate labor relations, not as another profession that deals with Social security. As for society, we want to be recognized as professionals specializing in labor and Social Security law.

Increasingly, the profession of social graduate has been valued, has come to the fore and has been clearly identified as professionals and specialists in labor and employment law.Social security.

We want the prevalence and publicity that we have had as a collective to grow and for us to be perfectly identifiable and defined by society in general.

How do current social graduates perceive the future of the profession? Are there more or fewer students interested in this profession than in recent times?

The group sees a beautiful future with a long career in the profession. We must not forget that it does not focus only on one of the branches it touches, that is, the social graduate can go to the social order courts, he can go to the management branch; as was revealed in the pandemic. What it generates are very broad perspectives of work capacity and insertion into the world of work. The fact that it is a wide range invites us to think that it has a promising future for the profession for students with ample professional opportunities.

We as a group appreciate that, as the years go by, labor relations and human resources studies become established in society and the number of people who study these studies is greater.

During this health and economic crisis, what has been the biggest challenge you have faced in your office? Have you felt the viability of the sector is compromised?

The main challenge of the pandemic was the change that it represented in the life of society, thus presenting itself with a royal decree in which we were made responsible for the management of many ERTES and unemployment benefits for the workers of our clients who provided their services for those companies who were affected by the restriction measures. Being able to adapt to a volume of work that multiplied the office's usual load. Furthermore, we each had to do all of this at home electronically, and we had to carry out all this management in an orderly and professional manner, without leaving aside the doubts of the readings of the Royal Decrees that were being approved. 

The viability of the service was initially compromised; there were colleagues who dropped out due to temporary disability and many co-workers have requested voluntary resignation. This enormous workload has greatly affected the ability to address all of these issues in a professional manner.

You have been a fundamental part in the beginning of the pandemic due to the large number of benefits that you have had to manage. How did you digitally face this increase in work? Do you consider the implementation of teleworking viable? Perhaps through a hybrid formula?

With a lot of order. We centralize it in the school, with enormous support from the school to our classmates. We studied how these benefits had to be presented, their requirements and the documentation that had to be attached with guidelines, to facilitate their work.

In many cases, we have had to invest in new equipment, both in the offices and to be able to carry out management from home, and for the digitization of all documents.

This infrastructure has served us for subsequent months, opening up a possible way to be able to telework in specific situations that were not so implemented in the profession before.

I think teleworking has already been implemented a lot. In the exercise of our profession, direct contact with the client is essential, although remote contact was already being worked on.

The model we follow is hybrid, since everything cannot be left to a distance, but the vast majority of tasks can be performed without having a direct relationship with the client on a daily basis.

We continue to work telematically, through email and telephone. Personal relationships and complicated situations that require a certain sensitivity and closeness are left for in-person, but, on the other hand, issues that are not so sensitive can be done telematically.

What were and are the main economic effects of the pandemic on your clients? How do you think the recovery of the business fabric in your province will be? 

The impact has been clear. It is true that in the territory of Guipúzcoa and in the business community, industry has an important specific weight, and in this sense, industry is one of the least affected in the pandemic, since the measures have not prevented it from functioning. It is true that the impact came during the months of the State of Alarm, due to situations such as the supply being incorrect. In addition, there are important effects caused by the problem of containers and the increase in the cost of electricity. On the other hand, in Guipúzcoa we have a tourism sector with great weight also in the hospitality industry, sectors that have been greatly affected by the pandemic. We have had direct and close contact with companies pushed to closure in the tourism sector and have disappeared. It is true that to a large extent the ERTES were a solution to avoid major problems. One of the ERTES issues came with some exemptions in Social security very important, therefore, apart from the fixed costs of the company, made one of the largest items in the profit and loss account in relation to costs, they avoided continuing to generate them. It is true that there have been companies that just before pandemic were focused on new technologies and the fact of pandemic and reinforcement of the digital sector has made those companies Yes, they have grown up in the era of pandemic.

We are appreciating that they are returning to activities prior to pandemic. This pace of recovery has stalled in recent weeks and we have entered a period of certain uncertainty with the increase in electricity costs and the acquisition of raw materials.

At the tourism sector level, it is recovering more and more, activities are increasing, we receive more tourists with levels prior to pandemic. I am more concerned about the industrial sector, because it is a sector in which added value is given to the employment it creates and it is highly recommended that it recover figures prior to the pandemic, and that should be the focus of our territory .

Has the aid that has been granted both at the national and local level to the different sectors arrived on time? And the aid coming from the European Union?

In my opinion, I believe that the aid has not arrived as soon as it should have arrived. Above all, they have been burdened by all the management that has had to be done. Something similar has happened with the processing of ERTE, a funnel has been generated that hampered their resolution and the aid reaching the final recipient. I believe that they will never be enough for this type of situation but it is true that the capacity to provide aid is limited, and the objective of the governments was to safeguard the business fabric, but they could not provide aid that fell outside the budgets. The aid has been moderately proportional to the situation and coherent, but not sufficient.

The Business Creation and Growth Law contemplates the simplification of the procedures to establish a company. How will it affect the business productive fabric?

Whenever procedures and bureaucratic procedures are removed, business activities will be encouraged to be carried out. It must be taken into account that the fact of creating a company It entails very cumbersome procedures derived from the need to provide legal certainty to all these procedures, which now have to be done electronically. The implementation of an economic activity can be delayed by obtaining digital certificates that allow these requests to be made.

Anything that saves on bureaucratic obstacles and deadlines will be beneficial and will lead to an increase in business creation.

The pandemic has put a premium on the prevention of occupational risks. Do you think companies perceive it that way too? What do you value most about the service received by Fraternidad-Muprespa?

The occupational risk prevention sector has highlighted the implementation of measures to avoid contagion. I believe that an important effort has already been made to ensure that occupational risk prevention had a specific weight in the policies of the companies, and that, following the pandemic, has been valued.

The companies with occupational risk prevention developed have seen that having this prevention has benefited them in the pandemic and it hasn't disrupted the plans much.

However, those that did not have it, it has required a greater effort for the reorganization and they have already focused on it.  I believe that in the future we must insist more on prevention and it must be a primary issue in labor relations in the companies in general.

All the work that the mutuals have done has been impressive. The management of the huge amounts of benefits for the self-employed and cessations of activity have been resolved with agility, as well as all the management of reviewing disabilities caused by infections and occupational diseases. This has generated a high volume of casualties and, just as we have had to manage the casualties in terms of payroll or parts to be social security In mutual insurance companies there has had to be management and control of all these losses. At the level of benefits and cessation of activity, their management has been worth highlighting, not only that, but also the interpretation and adaptation, because it has evolved throughout the pandemic. I want to express my gratitude to all the mutual societies that collaborate with the Social security for this provision of service to the group.

I want to highlight the closeness of Fraternidad-Muprespa and their constant willingness to collaborate and help the office, being able to call them at any time to clarify issues.