The Regional Ministry of Economy, Knowledge and Employment of the Government of the Canary Islands presented this Monday the new Integral Employment Plan for the island of La Palma, with actions for 30 million euros, which builds on the guidelines for employment support that was provided in 2022 and that benefited more than 4,700 people.
Between the measures to alleviate the effect of the eruption on employment and the direct aid to companies affected by the natural disaster, the Regional Ministry will have managed almost 120 million euros in measures for the recovery of the island’s productive fabric, including 5 million euros for new aid for business investment.
Collaborating entities and administrations, such as the Island Council, the fourteen town councils and the socio-economic agents, will be the primary agents to manage the 30 million euros that the State allocated in this year’s budget for a new Integral Employment Plan for La Palma.
INTEGRAL EMPLOYMENT PLAN FOR LA PALMA
Within the new Employment Plan, the most far-reaching measure is undoubtedly the continuity of the extraordinary employment plans for the recovery and rehabilitation of affected areas.
These employment plans, which once again focus mainly on the municipalities directly affected by the volcanic flows, provide effective work, allowing the people hired to acquire training and professional experience, with actions aimed at the recovery of the island and other works or services of general interest. An estimated budget of 20,600,000 euros has been earmarked for this action.
The rest of the projects, with the exception of the FP Dual, which will serve to train people who need to acquire new skills or wish to retrain to change occupation, are also continuity of the lines initiated in 2022, such as the restructuring of companies, the payment of ERTE, attention to disability or training in alternation with employment.
According to the regional ministry, this plan enabled more than 4,700 people and hundreds of companies to be hired, helped and trained last year, and it is estimated that more than 2,000 people will be able to benefit from it this year. In addition, it helped 567 companies that were forced to cease their activity due to the eruption and estimated that more than 16 million euros had been provided in aid to alleviate their losses.
In this regard, this year another five million euros will be invested for this purpose, having reduced the number of companies in this situation to 242, and announced that another 5 million euros will be allocated to a new line of aid for business investment.
