Vallès Occidental employment pact assessed

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In June 2000, local authorities and social partners in Spain's Vallès Occidental region drew up a positive assessment of the employment pact they signed in 1997, as part of the EU Territorial Employment Pacts initiative, and of the accompanying action programme for 1998 and 1999. The parties ratified their commitment to cooperate by signing a new action programme for the next four years.

The Florence and Dublin European Council s of June and December 1996 decided, as part of the "Confidence Pact for Employment" initiative, to promote pilot projects on territorial and local employment pacts. The aim was to promote cooperation among local actors (local authorities, social partners and other organisations) in designing, setting up and carrying out programmes in favour of employment that are adapted to the situation in each locality (ES9709121F). The programmes attempted to make better use of the available resources for employment policies without the need for additional funds, other than those necessary for the cooperation itself.

Over 1997-9, the European Commission thus supported 89 Territorial Employment Pacts, of which six were in Spain: one of them is the employment pact of the Vallès Occidental. This pact consists of an agreement between the Generalitat (regional government) of Catalonia, the Vallès Occidental regional council and the area's social partners - the regional organisations of the Trade Union Confederation of Workers' Commissions (Comisiones Obreras, CC.OO) and the General Workers' Confederation (Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT) and two regional employers' bodies (Confederació Empresarial Comarcal de Terrassa, CECOT, and Consell Intersectoriel d'Empresaris de Sabadell i Comarca, CIESC). In March 1997, these organisations signed a framework agreement that led in early 1998 to the signing of an action programme for employment in the region for the years 1998 and 1999.

On 21-22 June 2000, at their final meeting, the organisations responsible for the pilot Vallès Occidental employment pact made a positive assessment of this experience and ratified their commitment to cooperate by signing a new action programme for the next four years.

Objectives and measures

The express objective of the 1998-9 action programme was to bring the unemployment rate in the region down to the Catalan average. The Vallès Occidental is a region with around 700,000 inhabitants close to Barcelona. It has a long industrial tradition and since the mid-1980s its economy has undergone a major diversification. The unemployment rate in 1998 was 11%, compared with 9% for the whole of Catalonia.

The action programme agreed by the local authorities and social partners for 1998-9 mobilised just over PTA 4 billion and consisted of a set of 18 measures based on seven priority areas:

• infrastructures for business;

• improvement of the competitive environment of small and medium-sized companies (SME s);

• promotion of stable employment and employment policies in companies;

• training and integration of those groups and areas in which long-term unemployment is concentrated;

• articulating the demand for new sources of employment;

• the opportunities presented by the information society; and

• cooperation between institutions and actors in the region.

Assessment of the action programme

The action programme was expressly recognised by the European and Spanish institutions responsible for employment policies and received a positive assessment from all the organisations that participated in it. The most outstanding aspects of this experience, according to this assessment, are the following:

• a balanced set of objectives and actions that is based on territorial and socio-economic development and on the fight against unemployment. The seven strategic lines of the action programme express a wider range of objectives than that of other territorial pacts as a result of the combination of measures involving support to business, fostering competitiveness of companies, job creation, improvement of the quality of employment, integration and training;

• the effective cooperation of the local actors in designing, setting up and carrying out the programme. The experience of the Vallès Occidental went beyond the institutional agreement, achieving a high level of participation of local employers' organisations and trade unions in designing actions and actively participating in them. Other organisations such as town councils, training centres and non-profit organisations were also involved in the actions;

• the articulation of new means of "vertical cooperation". The action programme was a pilot scheme aimed at creating new spaces for relations and participation between the local actors and the regional government in order to articulate the existing normal employment and training policies. Instruments were created for effectively coordinating guidance and integration activities and adapting the planning of vocational training to the needs of the area;

• the innovative and exemplary nature of many of the actions. The search for new and better solutions to the problems of employment and businesses in the area was one of the clearest results of the new cooperation framework. The most successful measures were support for better quality employment through promotion of agreements on employment in local companies, support for the competitiveness of SMEs through training and integration of young people specialising in quality and exports, and promotion of new sources of employment in environmental protection and care for the elderly; and

• the high degree of fulfilment of objectives and attainment of results. In designing the action programme, a great effort was made to define the operations and the expected impact. The high degree of fulfilment in both areas shows the real capacity of the local actors to become active agents of employment policies and local development in the area.

The most direct and immediate results of this programme have been the creation of around 1,000 temporary jobs, the consolidation of over 600 jobs and the integration of around 4,700 people through additional measures, in addition to the integration of 11,100 people through ordinary measures. Unemployment has fallen by 25%, and it is now far closer to the average for Catalonia than it was two years ago.

Commentary

The most successful feature of the experience of the Vallès Occidental is the articulation of a new framework of horizontal and vertical cooperation between the different actors in the region. The most important aspect of the pact was the process of learning to cooperate in favour of employment. Many of the measures of the action programme are the result of this cooperation and would not have been possible without it. Two key aspects emerged in this experience: the capacity of the local actors to draw up specific objectives in terms of employment and to commit themselves to applying them; and the willingness of the regional government to participate in this experience and to facilitate the resources needed to carry it out. Of course, it has been a complex and at times controversial process, in which it has been necessary to make an continued effort to guarantee the balance of interests and the convergence of criteria between the different organisations.

The experience of this first action programme places the local actors in a new and better position to act in favour of employment. A great part of the effort was devoted to laying the basis for cooperation: the second programme must achieve a higher degree of quality in the action and a greater impact on employment. On this basis, the various organisations are working on the action to be taken in the next few years.

To achieve this, it will be essential to consolidate and reinforce cooperation between the different local actors, particularly with the regional government now that the Generalitat of Catalonia has full competence regarding employment and is beginning to deploy its own active policy model. The experience of the Vallès Occidental may help to consolidate a more participative and decentralised model for designing and carrying out normal employment and training policies in Catalonia (María Caprile, CIREM Foundation).