Raúl Gómez, president of the CGS of Pontevedra: “This is a profession with a great future”

Raúl Gómez Villaverde ___he has a diploma in Labor Relations from the University from Santiago de Compostela. With extensive complementary training and official courses, Raúl is specialized in labor and procedural law, and has accumulated extensive experience in labor processing and management.

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

Our demands are fundamentally those allowed by the Civil Procedure Law, which states that a shift of social and labor justice will be created and that social graduates will represent citizens. Therefore, what we ask is that the Administration put into operation this free round of justice in which workers and companies without resources can access our services, which the Administration will pay for. Currently we are doing it almost altruistically.

On the other hand, social graduates are technicians in Labor and Social Security law, and I consider therefore that we are the most prepared profession on this, and training in social jurisdiction must be total.

Another demand is that we can file the appeal for the modification of the cassation doctrine before the Supreme Court.

We ask for more collaboration with the Administration, I think we may be able to go where we cannot, but they have to enable us.

And it would be very important for social graduates to endorse each of the payrolls they make for the College of Social Graduates. Thus there would be no under-quotation, no gender discrimination, nor categories lower than those corresponding by agreement.

How do current social graduates perceive the future of the profession? Are the students who are interested more or less than in recent times?

I think it is a profession with a great future because it is a technical profession, it is necessary for both citizens and companies and workers, it is adapted to modern times in terms of telematics. As for students, there are more and more. Here in Galicia we have quite a few faculties and all of them always have many students enrolled.

In the world of law enforcement you have to work hard and win over the client, and in Spain in general we have an idealization of working for the State: taking the exam to work for the State is the first option for many.

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 biggest challenge has been the volume of work and, as a consequence, the level of stress. However, we have not felt the viability of the sector was compromised: while in other sectors many businesses could disappear, in the consulting sector the work was brutal.There is more demand than supply, therefore, consulting has been seen as an essential job.

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 deal with this increase in workload?  Do you consider the implementation of teleworking viable, perhaps through a hybrid formula?

We have faced the increase in volume with many hours of work. Before the pandemic we already had computer applications and we worked telematically with the Treasury and the Administration through digital certificates, so we were already prepared. Regarding the possible implementation of teleworking, I believe that the use of a hybrid model is optimal. However, personal contact is important.

It is true that it can be managed perfectly by email, but I believe that in the relationships we maintain, which are based on trust, human treatment is needed, not everything can be done through a machine.

And although I believe that the hybrid formula is perfect to go from paper to digital certificates, I believe that we must return to normality.

What were and are the main economic effects of the pandemic on your clients? What would have happened to your companies if the ERTES had not been approved due to force majeure? Would they have survived?

The main economic effect of the pandemic on our clients was debt. Those who had savings spent them, and those who did not survived with credits but without dissolution or destruction. The year 2010 was much harder. In my opinion, dissolutions have been avoided thanks to the ERTES: if they had not been approved, companies that had economic capacity would have emptied their cash, and even those with sufficient capital would have become too indebted and would have disappeared.

Has the aid that has been awarded so much arrived on time? Have some sectors benefited more than others?

So it seems yes. The social and fiscal pressure was not so strong, that is, no money was given, contributions from the Social Security were simply subsidized, the workers received payments directly from the SEPE and the self-employed received the CATA from the mutual societies. The aid that arrived was mainly at the local and regional level. As for whether there have been some sectors that have benefited more than the rest, the hospitality or tourism industry has indeed benefited more and has also had more facilities to access aid as a result of having been the sectors most affected by the pandemic. However, I do not consider that they have been sufficient.

How do you assess the impact of the crisis generated by COVID in your province on companies and the self-employed? How do you think the recovery of the business fabric will be?

The COVID crisis has been a tourism crisis at the provincial level. Just as 2010 was a construction crisis, destroying jobs and construction companies, this crisis has clearly affected tourism. However, companies in Pontevedra have endured and have also managed to recover this year. Regarding recovery, efforts should focus primarily on tourism, the main driving force of both the province and Spain.More should be invested in tourism and R&D, since we are the second country in the world with the most visitors. I think 2022 will be the year of recovery.

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

It is a formula that has already been seen to work and exists, as is the case in Portugal, where there are offices that are in charge of managing business creation in one hour. Therefore, we must energize that. With this law everything will be faster, but I do not think it is an essential factor.

I don't think the problem will be solved by simplifying procedures, because I think the problem is in the tax and contribution pressure.

Being a border province, many businessmen who do not need to have their headquarters in the province locate them in industrial estates full of Spanish businessmen on the other side of the border. This movement is motivated by several reasons, such as the possibility of an increase in contributions, or the fact that in Portugal layoffs, tax pressure and Corporate Tax are cheaper. Therefore, I do not see that it is a very optimal action to solve the country's problem.

How do you value the work of mutual insurance companies? 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

The mutual societies are public companies as they are collaborating entities with the Social Security and they have had a lot of work, accelerating the process of providing CATA. Regarding the issue of prevention, in sectors where there are high risks, prevention was already assumed. Companies were able to become aware of the risks of stress or high volume of work. However, small businesses are not so aware of the importance of this.

On the other hand, I think that training and dissemination of prevention are fundamental tasks that are working optimally.

Fraternidad-Muprespa is very strong here in the province and we have been working with it every day for a long time.