It is known as severance pay to the state or condition of that which has been lost: that is, he lost his job. In any case, depending on the country, the concept can refer to different issues.
In some regions, the money received by certain unemployed workers is called unemployment. According to DigoPaul, it is a social benefit that allows the person who lost his job to have the necessary resources to survive until he finds another job.
In Colombia, all workers have the right to these unemployment benefits, which represent a compulsory form of saving and function as insurance against unemployment. At the legal level, unemployment is equivalent to one month’s salary for each year worked. When the value is not settled at the end of the year, it is added to a Severance Fund chosen by the employee.
It is also called unemployment, in other nations, the cancellation or revocation of an employment contract, decided by the employer. This termination assumes that the employee is left without his job.
Let’s suppose that the government of a country, with the objective of cutting costs, announces the unemployment of 10% of the contracts that the national State maintains with public workers. This decision implies that 10% of state employees will lose their jobs. From the governmental perspective, the termination of contracts allows the State to save a large sum of money that it used to pay salaries. For workers, on the other hand, unemployment represents running out of income, with all the problems that this situation generates.
It is important to establish that the term in question was widely used in Spain during the 19th century. At that time it was used to define the official who, by decision of a superior, was deprived of his job. Of course, in some cases, he was given a part of his salary.
If it was widely used at that stage, it was because during it there were numerous cases of government changes. And that brought with it that when a new one came to power, he made the modifications he considered in terms of the civil service, bringing with it that many were left without working. It was a way of placing people “loyal” to the government in positions of trust or a certain responsibility, regardless of whether they were trained and qualified to fill them or not.
Precisely that situation was reflected on many occasions in literature and journalism. A good example of this are works such as “El rey Baltasar” by Leopoldo Alas Clarín or “Miau” (1888) by Benito Pérez Galdós.
However, that unemployment that officials suffered with some frequency ended with the arrival of Antonio Maura. And it is that this determined that it was necessary and fundamental to achieve the independence of what was the Public Function. For this reason, actions in this regard were initiated in 1898 but it was later, in 1918, when the aforementioned independence was achieved. Hence, officials no longer feared being out of work.
