On Tuesday, November 24, at 12:00 pm, the Day of Insertion Companies of Navarra took place. Due to the pandemic, this year the event was held in the form of an online meeting that could be followed live via streaming on the YouTube platform.
The event began with the intervention of Eduardo Sanz, president of EINA, who recognized that “these are difficult times” and that Covid-19 has put insertion companies to the test. Despite everything, he recalled that they provide support to more than 300 families in vulnerable situations in our territory and that their joint turnover reached 4.5 million euros in 2019. By the end of this year, it is also expected that the number of social and labour insertion companies is 11. Therefore, “it is important that the Government of Navarra continues to provide us with support to continue investing in the creation of new job opportunities.”
Regarding the 6% reserve, he regretted his breach. “It barely reaches 2%,” he stressed. Hence, he insisted on the importance of a tool that benefits “the most vulnerable people in society.” For Sanz, therefore, complying with the regulations “is betting on the social and territorial cohesion of Navarra”. In this sense, after his speech, the video was screened: “Promoting the Social Economy through Public Procurement: the reserved contracts tool”, a video made by the EINA Association in order to inform and promote the Contract Reservation in Navarra. The video is available for viewing on the EINA YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isq7f1u1q38
Then the managing director of the SNE-NL, Mirian Martón, intervened, who underlined the measures that the Government of Navarra is promoting to strengthen a unique resource such as the socio-labor insertion of people. First, it referred to budget support in recent years, going from 1.5 million in 2015 to 3.1 million for 2021.
She also recalled that, in 2020, in order to stimulate the reactivation of SICs after the slowdown caused by COVID-19, the item to support investments has amounted to 200,000 euros. In addition, the SNE-NL has made regulatory changes to favor the expansion of the number of companies, from 9 to 11, and improve the quality of the network.
In addition, she stated that insertion companies are “a benchmark in the management of resources and budgets to benefit the people who need it most.” For this reason, she showed the willingness of her body to continue working and collaborating “to take a new impulse that allows facing new challenges.”
PROGRESS OF THE SROI STUDY AND AWARDS
Subsequently, Xabier Berrade, EINA’s technical secretary, reported on the status of the study to assess the social impact of the work of social and labour insertion companies in Navarra with the SROI methodology. This analysis will be presented in the middle of next December. Likewise, he spoke of the Social Balance of the socio-labour insertion companies registered between the years 2017 and 2019. It was reflected, for example, that the economic return generated by the socio-labour insertion companies through taxes and other taxes has grown by a 115% going from 319,000 euros two years ago to more than 709,000 in 2019.
In the same balance, there was also an increase of 137% in the total number of people employed, in such a way that if in 2017 there were 107 workers, just two years later, there were 254 employees in the social and labor insertion companies of the Regional Community.
The ‘Navarra Insertion Company Day’ was completed with the delivery, for the third time, of the recognitions as ‘Socially Responsible Entities of Navarra’ to NILSA and GAN-NIK. The CEO of the first one, Fernando Mendoza, reported that his organization has been involved in this type of initiative since 2009. He also announced that “during the next five years we intend to invest one million euros in contracts reserved for social integration companies”.
Luis Sanz, on behalf of GAN-NIK, encouraged compliance with the reserve level established by the provincial legislation. “We all have to get involved in complying beyond what the standard says because our future goes through comprehensive management that combines social objectives with those of sustainable development.”
The closing of the event was in charge of the counselor of the Department of Social Rights Mª Carmen Maeztu, who announced that the department that she directs, through the Navarrese Employment Service, will allocate a total of 3,100,000 euros to companies in 2021 of social and labor insertion (EIS) of Navarra. 3 million will be dedicated to subsidizing the salaries of people at risk of exclusion and technical personnel and € 100,000 to support investments that contribute to job creation and increase their competitiveness.
In addition, she highlighted that, within the framework of the market reserve, the Government of Navarra increased in 2019 by 16.75% the number of contracts with Special Employment Centres (EEC) and EIS, going from € 2,469,832.90 of 2018 at € 2,883,738 the following year. 66% of this amount goes to the SICs.
To continue promoting the market reserve, the Government will update the information through its website, in collaboration with the EIS and CEE, and will introduce improvements to the Contracting Portal. It also plans to influence the planning and reservation of contracts, as well as to reactivate the Support Commission for sheltered employment, so that the different departments of the Government of Navarra are more actively involved.
To conclude, the Minister committed the effort of the Government of Navarra to continue expanding a resource that “promotes job opportunities, in the form of hiring, of the most vulnerable people, ultimately favouring greater social cohesion in Navarra”, reducing the dependence on other social resources.
The full evento video is available for viewing on the Association’s YouTube channel through the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xADmwD45eR0
