Editor’s note: This article was first published in June 2011. It is news on the Spanish government’s collective bargaining reform: the negotiating deadlines, union and party positions and “next Monday” refer to that week, and Telefónica’s planned redundancy procedure for 6,500 workers is a 2011 figure. Spain’s 2012 labour reform changed these rules again.
While the document the government sent to employers and unions set a maximum of 20 months to negotiate a new collective agreement, the next day this period was cut to between 12 and 18 months, and finally, 24 hours later, to between 8 and 14 months. Once that time has passed, the parties would have to go to arbitration, and if no agreement were reached, the previous collective agreement would remain in force.
The collective bargaining reform clearly states that companies that make a profit will have to pay for their EREs (collective redundancy procedures). The reform will apply to EREs started from 27 April onwards, which ensures that it covers the case of Telefónica, although the company had already committed to bearing the costs of the process it plans to apply to 6,500 workers in Spain over five years.
The new reform also allows a worker to be dismissed with just 20 days’ severance pay per year worked. In addition, companies can use an ERE when they foresee temporary losses, without those losses having to be permanent.
Reform approved without the unions’ agreement
The government met the leaders of CC.OO and UGT (Spain’s two largest trade unions) to brief them on the draft reform. They warned that they do not feel bound by or committed to the government’s proposal, although they believe they “salvaged something” from it.
The other political groups have not yet taken a position and are waiting for the final text, although CiU (the Catalan nationalist coalition) has already announced that it will not support the reform, because it thinks it reflects the unions’ positions more than the employers’.
“The rigidity of the labour market does nothing to help us get out of the crisis, because it doesn’t give employers the confidence to hire workers.” Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida, CiU spokesman
In the end, the reform has been approved and will come into force next Monday, although the labour minister has asked companies not to use this option and, as far as possible, to look for an alternative to dismissal when facing temporary losses.
Featured image: Kippelboy, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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