Today we interview... Víctor Rivero, from Ferrera Asesores y Consultores (Santa Cruz de Tenerife)

Today we interviewed Víctor Rivero, head of the labor area at Ferrera Asesores y Consultores from Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Víctor has a diploma in Labor Relations from the University of La Laguna, a master's degree in Human Resources Management and Management, and a senior technician in Occupational Risk Prevention. Ferrera Asesores y Consultores was born in 1996 and has a staff made up of a team of professionals from different specialties to assist in an interdisciplinary and effective way in all matters related to tax, accounting, legal and labor advice.

During this health and economic crisis, what has been the biggest challenge you have faced in your dispatch?

Without a doubt, the situation experienced in its entirety has been a very complicated challenge.

The biggest challenge has been the regulatory “bombardment”, even overlapping regulations, which produced legal uncertainty.

When any crisis arises, the advisory sector will always suffer collateral damage, as delays in fees and even non-payments occur. Depending on the diversity of the companies to which advice is provided, the sector can be greatly affected.

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 the volume of work, which was also not in person? Do you consider the implementation of the teleworking?

It was very complicated for several reasons. If we had to describe it with a metaphor, it would be having to empty a mountain with just a shovel and a wheelbarrow. 

Whoever is dedicated to this consulting sector, in one way or another, is accustomed to managing electronic offices, and with a little knowledge and with the help of computer scientists, the obstacles of adapting equipment can be overcome.

Once the equipment is configured, the next step requires good organization. An analysis of the volume of work was carried out and the distribution was carried out in the team. As for the implementation of teleworking,, I consider it viable and necessary. We are in a digital age. We have the great fortune of being able to see the face of another person who is thousands of kilometers away, we can have telematic access to an office located in another city. This gives us great possibilities to carry out countless tasks remotely and improve the quality of life: greater availability of time, avoiding travel, saving on transportation and food or better work-life balance.

We understand that a hybrid formula would be fair, on the one hand to not lose social and personal ties in the workplace, and on the other hand, to enjoy the advantages of teleworking.

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

Like the vast majority, the main ones were the economic effects, caused by the stoppage of activity. In those in which the activity did not stop there were problems of production defects, for example the gas stations, which could work, but their volume of work was much lower than the capacity of their HR.

If force majeure ERTES had not been approved, many companies would currently be experiencing serious economic damage. We must keep in mind that in the Canary Islands the main sector is tourism.

The restrictions on the movement of people and the opening of establishments have meant that, despite the aid, some have had to close due to the impossibility of assuming the return of activity. When the health situation allows travel and enjoyment of leisure without limitations, the tourism sector will greatly benefit, so there can be a positive effect on the recovery of the business fabric. To give an example, many of the weddings from 2020 and 2021 have been postponed to 2022, so the sector will go from being in the red to having a surplus.

Has the aid that has been granted both at the national and local level to the different sectors arrived on time? Do you think they are sufficient?

The aid arrived on time, since the publication of ERTES and Cessation of activity was carried out in March 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic. Subsequently, they advanced with modifications and new benefits and aid. There are sectors that have benefited the most, such as the hospitality industry, and others that have received less aid, such as construction. It is true that some sectors have been more affected by activity restrictions, such as nightlife companies.

The ideal would be to carry out a correct control so that the aid from the European Union reaches those who have really been affected by this pandemic.

It is difficult to say whether they are sufficient or not, since they are standard aids for very different situations. A self-employed person without employees with his/her own premises, without children and without a dependent spouse, is not the same as a self-employed who has to assume the cost of renting a premises, with employees and with a dependent spouse and children. It is very complicated to determine whether the aid was sufficient, because, if we place ourselves in the first case, the aid was probably more than enough. If we look at the second case, it was insufficient. The sectors that have the easiest access to aid have been those directly affected by this crisis, mainly the hospitality industry. There are other sectors that have seen a decrease in their income or activity and that have not been able to receive much aid.

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

I value positively that a company can be created quickly.

One of the endemic evils of this country is the slowness in certain bureaucratic procedures.When a person decides to start a business, they usually want to do it once they have the necessary capital and ideas, but sometimes they run into administrative authorization obstacles that slow down the creation of the company.

It should improve the reduction of deadlines and make it easier to undertake.

Among the functions of the Mutual Insurance Companies that collaborate with Social Security highlights the important role of the prevention of occupational risks as well as the care of the occupational health of the workers. The pandemic has put value on the prevention of occupational risks, do you think companies perceive it that way too? How do you value the work of training and dissemination of prevention in the different sectors of activity in which your companies operate?

This question is difficult to answer. Many outside prevention services have been completely overwhelmed by the situation. This caused a disparity in criteria depending on what the prevention service was, with the consequent annoyance for business owners.

The training and dissemination tasks have arrived. However, issues that, from my point of view, should have been assumed by the administrations have been delegated to external prevention services.

I'm going to give an example: a lot of funds have been allocated to aid. However, not so much money has been allocated to carry out awareness campaigns about Covid-19. Perhaps it would have been interesting to have a “bombardment” of campaigns on all televisions explaining how to use a mask correctly, how the disease can be spread, explaining that a vaccinated person can contract the disease and can be contagious. In short, awareness campaigns about what was being experienced, because those that have been carried out have not been very focused on the reality of each company.

What I value most about the service received by Fraternidad-Muprespa is the total willingness to provide clarifications on any issue. In fact, the posters of measures against Covid-19 still remain in our offices.