“It’s a burden and a nuisance”

The main association of self-employed workers in the country (ATA) flatly rejects the reform of the time registration that the Ministry of Labor want to enter to digitize it and that the Labor Inspection can consult it in real time at any time. Lorenzo Amor, president of ATA, considers that the measure “It’s a burden and a nuisance.” for the self-employed and smaller companies when there is already a time record.

Love, that appeared this Wednesday at a press conference to present the latest ATA barometer, assures that is being legislated “against” and “sinking” the little ones. “Every day there is a new procedure, a new rule that is a trip and that increases the gap between the small and the medium and the large,” the ATA leader said.

The ministry led by Yolanda Díaz has trusted his efforts to a tougher time record after the puncture with the reduction of working hours in Congress. The ministry’s expectations pass because stricter time control manage to reduce overtime that are done every day in Spain and, thus, achieve a reduction in working hours in practice. The rule that will regulate the new time registration has already begun its processing, although, according to Labor, it will not have to go through Congress.

From ATA, Lorenzo Amor has expressed that “all companies have to pay for their overtime and who He does not pay them, he is creating unfair competition.“, but considers that the regulations that want to implement is disproportionate. “Because there are citizens who on a highway go more than 120 [kilómetros por hora] We do not give each driver a tachograph, nor do we remove the highway or highway,” he commented.

Regarding the next increase in the minimum wage, which the Ministry of Labor has already begun to study, Amor has criticized that in recent years the salary improvements have been made without agreement with employers. However, he has clarified that They will study the proposal when Díaz transfers it to them and has demanded that companies that contract with the public administration be able to pass on the costs involved.

“I always defend that the SMI has to adapt to reality and the increases in costs that families have, but There are certain activities that those who have to pay the SMI have problems with.”Lorenzo Amor has transferred.

Another of the major pending issues that self-employed organizations have is the negotiation of the new system of Social Security contribution brackets for the period 2026-2028. In this sense, Love has asked, first, to solve some problems that have experienced self-employment in multi-activity or those who have had some type of benefit. In addition, it has demanded more time to be able to evaluate the results of the 2024 and 2025 settlements, for which data is still not available. Nevertheless, They estimate that this year’s collection could exceed in 1,000 million in 2023.

They see a worsening of their situation

Regarding the ATA barometer, corresponding to the third quarter of the year, Amor highlighted that 38.3% of the self-employed have invoiced less than in 2024nine percentage points more than what was recorded in the same survey but last year. Furthermore, he has pointed out that delinquency rates remain on the rise and that the self-employed hardly demand credit due to the lack of investment.

“There is a level of mistrust and concern about the instability that our country is experiencing”he pointed out. Specifically, 90% of the self-employed consider that this situation of political and economic uncertainty, whether in Spain or outside the borders, is affecting their business or the economy.

“We celebrate that 500,000 jobs have been created in Spain in the last year, that the more than 4,000 companies with more than 250 workers are creating jobs at levels double the average growth, but we regret that the self-employed and Companies with one to three workers continue to destroy jobs“, added the president of ATA. A factor that Amor attributes to the “burdens” and “tax and collection voracity” that, in his opinion, the self-employed endure.