Pedestrians wearing face masks cross a street in the city center, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Barcelona, Spain, January 18, 2021. REUTERS/Albert Gea
MADRID - Spain said on Tuesday it will extend a support scheme for hundreds of thousands of workers furloughed due to COVID-19 until May 31.
The ERTE scheme, which has benefited millions since the beginning of the pandemic, had been due to expire on Jan. 31.
The government reached an agreement with unions and business groups to extend it until May, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told a tourism industry event in Madrid.
During the pandemic's April peak when Spain was under lockdown, as many as 7 million people, including furloughed workers and those on medical leave, depended at least partly on state aid for their income.
As most business restrictions were lifted over the past months, many furloughed workers returned to work, though 755,000 were still on the state-supported scheme in December, many in Spain's hard-hit tourism sector.
The government also extended, until March 31, a deadline for people financially hit by the pandemic to apply for mortgage and consumer credit moratoriums.
Payment of about 800,000 loans worth around 31.5 billion euros in total , had been suspended as of the end of November, according to Bank of Spain data, since the government approved the moratoriums last spring.
