The new agreement gives unions more power in collective bargaining negotiations, will limit the scope of companies’ temporary contracts and make permanent an approved temporary layoff plan to cushion the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We ended 2021 fulfilling the Government’s commitment: a new labor legislation that recovers rights in favor of decent work,” the Minister of Labor and second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, wrote on social networks.
The reform of the labor system in Spain is one of the commitments acquired by the country before the European Comission (EU executive body) to obtain the second tranche of European pandemic recovery funds.
Spain expects to receive a total of 70,000 million euros (79,140 million dollars) in total, of which only 19,000 million euros have been received so far.
Negotiations with employers and unions to replace the previous text, drawn up in 2012 without a broad consensus and which has generated significant labor unrest in the country, have lasted for months.
The controversial labor reform of 2012, under the government of Mariano Rajoy, was agreed as a condition for the rescue of Spanish banks, concentrating collective bargaining in companies with little union representation.
This led to the creation of new companies that paid salaries below the sectoral agreements, unleashing tensions with the unions but also among some companies, which saw in this practice something similar to unfair competition.
Companies will maintain the right to flexibility in matters such as working hours, while wages will be set through sectoral agreements, where unions have bargaining power.
Given that Spain is the country in the European Union with the greatest use of temporary contracts, the new regulations toughen the conditions for their use, limiting them to short periods of time in which they are justified.
The inappropriate use of temporary contracts will be penalized with fines and penalties from Social Security.
Source From: Ambito
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