The Valencian Community has 57,190 commercial premises, but a year before there were almost 3,000 more that, stifled by various circumstances – energy costs, unfair competition, labor costs, etc. – have ended up closing. Confecomerç CV, the confederation of small businesses in the territory, explained this Thursday that there are 3,251 businesses closed in the last two years and that of these, 1,500 were self-employed.
However, the sector is holding up fairly well because 3,000 new jobs have been created despite the containment of consumption, which is already perceived in homes. Rafael Torres, president of Confecomerç CV, explained this Thursday that, with this scenario, “the profitability of small companies is declining because costs are rising more than sales and that is reducing margins, especially in an environment in which that apparently it seems that the growth is not going to be that much. An internal survey reveals that expectations for the first quarter leave 52% of Valencian businesses with the feeling that everything is going to go the same as the previous quarter; 25% of the businesses thinking that it will be better and another 25%, that this time will be worse.
During an informative breakfast held in Valencia, the president of the Confederation was critical of the measures proposed by the central government, with whom they asked to recover social dialogue on matters such as the reduction of working hours. “The majority of merchants tell us that those who will have to work more hours will be them, who will stretch the gum. If the objective was to work less, someone should come and give us the solution,” says Rafael Torres, who explains that the Margins are shrinking for small businesses. “Only 4% of those surveyed are considering hiring more people. The numbers do not appear, it is absolutely unacceptable. We want to reconcile, but that is what social dialogue is for,” defends Torres, who is also president of the Spanish Confederation of Commerce. .
He has also shown uncertainty about the impact of the increase in the minimum wage, explaining that “small businesses find it difficult to pass on their costs to prices.” Torres believes that the measures “are precisely going to do more damage and I understand that this is precisely not what the Government is pursuing.”
That is why, in the case of the working day, they propose regulating the time flexibility at the social dialogue table to be able to limit the hours on an annual basis, according to the convenience of the season with a higher or lower level of sales for their sector.
“They must let the social partners speak; if the general interest prevails, it must be to defend the sustainability of businesses,” added Torres, who proposes looking at other European states and addressing time rationalization in consensus. “In other countries the business survives, doing 40, 38 or 36 hours, but closing earlier. Rather than by decree, what must be included are general hours,” she concluded.
