The portrait that emerges from the testimonies collected by the Platform for the Dignity of the Self-Employed leaves no room for doubt: the life of many self-employed workers in Ibiza is sustained by endless hours, bills that do not wait and social protection that barely exists. One woman sums up this mixture of exhaustion and resignation in a phrase that has become a symbol of collective weariness: “I work 12 hours a day and they don’t even give me enough to go on vacation”. This is not an exception, but a widespread feeling in a sector that has been working to the limit for years.
His testimony, recorded in a video, is echoed by others who share the same diagnosis: “We feel asphyxiated, we give more than we receive,” says another self-employed worker. A woman points out that “we are tired of being told that we are rich: we only pay taxes”, while another witness recalls that after three months of sick leave, the benefit did not even cover the self-employed worker’s contribution. Their collective account describes a reality marked by dependence on irregular income, the consequences of illness without adequate coverage and the lack of tools to claim non-payments.
The video -recorded and disseminated by Aisha Bonet, Bárbara Hermosilla and Alicia Reina, coordinators of the platform on the island- has been the turning point that has led to organize, also in Ibiza, the national mobilization planned for this Sunday, November 30. The march will start at 11:00 from the Parque de la Paz and will end at Vara de Rey, where the National Manifesto of the Self-Employed will be read, a document that summarizes years of complaints about taxation, bureaucracy and inequality in benefits.
From there, the call expands to the rest of the country in a movement that defines itself as peaceful, civic and non-partisan, and which calls for the participation not only of the self-employed, but also of wage earners, students, families and neighbors. The organization stresses that the deterioration of self-employment has a direct impact on neighborhoods, where the closure of small businesses means fewer services, less activity and a more fragile economic fabric.
View this post on Instagram
Claims of the self-employed
“When a business closes, a part of the neighborhood shuts down,” emphasizes the platform, which denounces a “fiscal injustice, bureaucratic overload and lack of social protection” that the island suffers with special intensity due to its insularity and the associated costs.
The manifesto that will be read in Vara de Rey specifies the main demands: a fair revision of the quotas, the immediate application of the European directive that exempts from VAT those who invoice less than 85,000 euros, the equalization of benefits, conciliation measures and a real reduction of bureaucracy. It also warns about the almost impossible access to the so-called “self-employed unemployment”, which only manages to collect less than 10% of those who close their activity.
Sunday’s protest also coincides with a moment of special institutional visibility. This same week, the plenary of the Consell de Ibiza approved a motion in support of the sector, warning that the island’s self-employed face added pressure due to seasonality and the increase in structural costs.
