This is the first negotiation launched to change the labor reform, although the difficulty in reaching an agreement will prolong the calendar
Among all the thorny issues that unions and employers will have to agree to in order to modify labor legislation, the one that regulates collective agreements is one of the first matters whose proposals are on the table of social dialogue. In the meeting that they held this Tuesday with those responsible for the Ministry of Labor, all the parties went with the text sent by Yolanda Díaz’s department the day before. In this analysis, the Government proposes to end the priority that company agreements now have to set the remuneration of workers, in favor of the sectoral agreements that are signed in each of the business activities, according to social dialogue sources.
Specifically, Trabajo proposes to change the articles related to subcontracting and collective bargaining. Ultraactivity is also being addressed, that is, the law by which a collective agreement is void and passes to the sector, when one year after its completion the parties do not agree on a new one.
As a third pillar of this beginning of the negotiation, the changes that Labor wants to introduce also in the subcontracting model in force since the previous labor reform (the well-known Article 42 of the Workers’ Statute) are framed to avoid abuse of the companies that use these services.
But for now, many other controversies will remain in the pipeline, such as the need – demanded by Brussels – to end the temporality, because one out of every four contracts in force are precarious compared to the indefinite ones. As well as the conditions of the dismissal, another of the battles of the unions.
But for the CEOE, this “is not the time to address the proposed labor reform, but rather to advance active employment policies or reduce the duality of the labor market.” A position that was later endorsed by the vice president, Nadia Calviño.
ERTE make it easy to return
On the other hand, the Bank of Spain has shown its support for the ERTE system, one of the mechanisms best valued by companies and citizens to face the coronavirus crisis. The supervisor considers that this system has been “highly effective” in facilitating return to employment after confinement measures.
Those affected by ERTE in the second quarter of the year showed a return to employment during the year “much higher” than that observed among those who lost their job without having a protection scheme.
Even so, the body recognizes that the difference between the two groups is “blurring” when it comes to longer ERTEs. The return to employment in the third quarter of those who entered an ERTE in the second was very high (almost 70%), and much higher than that observed among those not covered by an ERTE (40%). Of the rest of ERTE workers in the second quarter, 20% continued to be affected and 10% went into unemployment. In the fourth, this probability decreased substantially, falling below that observed among those not covered by these schemes.
The Bank of Spain concludes that the probability of reincorporation to employment in the third quarter after being unemployed in the second, was 30 percentage points higher for workers in ERTE compared to those who were not covered by this mechanism, but this difference was reduced to all nine points for those who lost their jobs in the third quarter.
