Editor’s note: This article was first published in June 2012, as news on the Partido Popular government’s labour reform as it went through the Senate; the amendments, the parties’ positions and the PP’s figure of more than 30,000 new entrepreneur contracts are from that moment.
Vilified, criticised and unfair. It’s been a while since people stopped talking about the labour reform that the partido popular (People’s Party) has staged in Spain. As of today, its results have not been shown to be effective or positive, however much the party tells its supporters that the government’s measures need to be explained. Lowercase on purpose, and a word to the wise.
Well, its passage through the Senate has made it possible to introduce some of the amendments tabled by the reform’s own party in the Senate’s Employment and Social Security Committee, while others, concerning members of the Guardia Civil, have been set aside to be debated elsewhere.
Some of the amendments are technical, and the changes made are:
- Permanent staff employed by public administrations will have priority to keep their jobs in the event of dismissals if they obtained their position through a competitive selection process held for that purpose.
- On the social security rebates for converting internship contracts, the amendment removes the requirement that these workers be a priority target of the company’s training plans, or of any other active employment policy measure aimed at improving their qualifications.
- The rebates for permanent hiring by companies with fewer than 50 employees will now also apply to companies that hire unemployed people over 45.
- On the pension reform, it specifies how the base used to calculate the amount of the pension (the base reguladora) is worked out when there are gaps in a worker’s contribution record.
What the parliamentary groups said
The Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) considers that the reform unbalances the relationship between workers and employers in favour of the latter, and it has also criticised the budget cut for active employment policies.
Jordi Guillot sees it as useful for employers and lethal for workers.
The partido popular, for its part, says there are already more than 30,000 new entrepreneur contracts (the new permanent contract for small businesses introduced by the reform).
Featured image: Américo Toledano, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
