Spain’s leftwing government has approved “paid climate leave” of up to four days to allow workers to avoid travelling during weather emergencies, a month after floods killed at least 224 people.
Several companies came under fire after the 29 October catastrophe for ordering employees to keep working despite a red alert issued by the national weather agency. The firms said the authorities failed to inform them sufficiently and sent telephone alerts too late during the European country’s deadliest floods in decades.
The new measure aims to “regulate in accordance with the climate emergency” so that “no worker must run risks”, labour minister Yolanda Díaz told public broadcaster RTVE.
If emergency authorities raise the alarm about a risk, “the worker must refrain from going to work”, said Díaz. Employees can resort to a reduced working day beyond the four-day period, a mechanism that already exists for emergencies, the government said.
The legislation was inspired by similar laws in Canada, RTVE reported. “In the face of climate denialism from the right, the Spanish government is committed to green policies,” Díaz said, according to a report in El País.
Economy minister Carlos Cuerpo warned the cost of extreme weather events could double by 2050 as the government confirmed €2.3bn of fresh aid for flood victims.
Extreme rainfall is more common and more intense because of human-caused climate breakdown across most of the world, particularly in Europe, most of Asia, central and eastern North America, and parts of South America, Africa and Australia. This is because warmer air can hold more water vapour. Flooding has most likely become more frequent and severe in these locations as a result, but is also affected by human factors, such as the existence of flood defences and land use.
All but eight of the flood deaths were in Valencia, where conservative regional president Carlos Mazón has conceded mistakes were made but refused calls to step down, claiming the unprecedented and “apocalyptic” scale of the disaster simply overwhelmed the system.
Torrential rains hit parts of Spain again two weeks after the floods, forcing 3,000 people to evacuate their homes in Málaga.
With Agence France-Presse
