At a meeting in January 2009, the social partners confirmed their commitment to the social dialogue process. Nonetheless, social dialogue in Spain has remained at a standstill due to disagreements over distributing the costs of the recession. Employers have called for a revision of collective agreements in force due to the economic downturn, while trade unions have warned that they will not negotiate pay rises lower than the government’s 2% inflation forecast.
Social Dialogue Monitoring Commission
On 30 January 2009, at a working session of the Social Dialogue Monitoring Commission, the social partners agreed on the need to promote social dialogue. The social partners included representatives, on the trade union side, of the Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO, Trade Union Confederation of Workers’ Commissions) and the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT, General Workers’ Confederation), and on the employer side, of the Confederación Española de Organizaciones Empresariales (CEOE, Spanish Confederation of Employers’ Organisations) and the Confederación Española de Pequeñas y Medianas Empresas (CEPYME, Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises). The Minister for Labour and Immigration, Celestino Corbacho, took also part in the Social Dialogue Monitoring Commission.
The monitoring commission established a protocol for the functioning and coordination of the different levels of social dialogue, although it has not yet established deadlines for reaching agreements. The commission was set up in 2004 and is responsible for establishing priorities, schedules and a working method for dealing with issues at the different social dialogue levels in Spain. It is also responsible for evaluating the measures adopted as a result of this dialogue.
Main social dialogue priorities
The working session dealt with the main topics to be addressed in the country’s social dialogue agenda during the coming months. These include:
- the continuing improvement of public employment services to bring them into line with general European standards and to improve active employment policies (ES0402102F);
- evaluation of the impact of subsidies for recruitment on open-ended employment contracts introduced by the 2006 ‘Agreement for the improvement of growth and employment’ (ES0605019I);
- analysis of and proposals for modifying the regulation of redundancy procedure s;
- analysis of the current situation regarding unemployment protection;
- development of the Second Action Plan arising from the Spanish Health and Safety at Work Strategy (ES0707019I);
- development of the Self-employed Workers’ Statute, including the introduction of unemployment benefit for self-employed people (ES0611019I);
- the reform of the social security system in the framework of the Toledo pact (ES0811019I).
Disagreement over wage revision
Six months after the social partners signed the joint ‘Declaration of principles for stimulating the economy, employment, competitiveness and social progress’ – thereby renewing their commitment to social dialogue to deal with the economic crisis (ES0810019I) – no basic agreements have yet been reached. In particular, the negotiations for the renewal of the ‘Multi-sector agreement for collective bargaining for 2009’ – the framework agreement that establishes pay rises according to inflation forecasts, participation in productivity and wage revision clauses – are at a standstill due to the different opinions of the social partners. The trade unions claim that, in many companies and sectors, the provisions of long-term collective agreements are not being fulfilled. Pay rises of less than 2% – in line with the government’s inflation forecast for 2009 – are being applied on the basis that inflation was down to 1.4% in December and that experts have forecast an increase of 0.1% this year.
In recent months, employers have called for a revision of collective agreements currently in force due to the exceptional economic circumstances. However, the trade unions have warned that they will not negotiate pay rises lower than the government’s 2% inflation forecast. The employers highlight, nevertheless, that the collective agreements include dropout clauses on pay for companies in difficulty.
The trade unions are accusing the employers of threatening the current model of wage moderation. Given the current situation, the unions believe that it is essential to maintain the purchasing power of pay in order to reactivate domestic demand. They are therefore opposed to the ‘inverse pay clauses’ proposed by employers in the metalworking and banking sectors. Such clauses state that when real inflation in December – the month when most agreements are revised – is lower than the government’s forecast, the difference should be deducted from pay in the following year. Clauses of this type are currently included in 5% of collective agreements and affect half a million workers in the country.
Despite these differences, the leaders of UGT and CC.OO have asked their regional and national organisations to start negotiating agreements without waiting for the framework agreement.
Other disputes
The trade unions have also criticised the government for the lack of coordination between the departments involved in social dialogue and for failing to respond to their proposals on modernising public employment services and extending unemployment protection. The unions feel that it is necessary to calculate the financial requirements involved in guaranteeing benefits for the increasing number of unemployed people, as well as to remove some of the requirements for receiving unemployment benefits when the period of contributory benefit has ended.
For their part, the employer organisations wish to include what they consider to be essential structural labour market reforms in the social dialogue agenda. Within the framework of flexicurity, they are calling for a reduction in the costs of recruitment, dismissal and internal mobility.
Juan Arasanz Díaz, QUIT, University Autònoma of Barcelona (UAB)