Parliament fails to debate draft law on subcontracting in construction

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In November 2000, Spain's ruling People's Party prevented a parliamentary debate on a draft law on subcontracting in the construction sector, promoted by the trade unions. This draft law is aimed at reducing industrial accidents in construction by placing limits on successive subcontracting. The unions have responded by announcing mobilisations in the coming months.

On 21 November 2000, parliament was due to debate a draft law on subcontracting in the construction sector presented by the Trade Union Confederation of Workers' Commissions (Comisiones Obreras, CC.OO) and supported by the General Workers' Confederation (Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT). The proposed law is based on a "popular legislative initiative" (iniciativa legislativa popular, ILP) organised by the construction federation of CC.OO (ES9812193N) (the popular legislative initiative is a procedure provided for under the Spanish constitution that allows ordinary citizens to present proposals directly to parliament if they are endorsed by a certain number of signatures). The requisite 500,000 signatures were presented in autumn 1999.

The draft law is aimed at reducing industrial accidents in the construction sector by placing limits on subcontracting. In the opinion of the trade unions, the increasing use of successive subcontracting in the construction sector is rapidly leading to greater insecurity in employment, deregulation of industrial relations and an increase in the industrial accident rate. The rise of accidents and deaths in the construction sector seems unstoppable (ES0011122F). The unions have been campaigning intensively on this issue for some time and the adoption of the proposed legislation was one of the main themes of a general strike for greater safety in construction held on 24 and 25 February 2000 (ES0004282F).

The main aims of the draft law are to:

• limit subcontracting to those areas of professional specialism that the main contractors cannot cover;

• force main contractors to use at least 30% of their own workforce in the execution of works or units of work;

• prohibit successive subcontracting in order to prevent works from being subcontracted successively in chains to smaller companies, without any limit or control;

• require contractors providing services to the public administration to ensure that 30% of the total workforce carrying out subcontracted works or units of work are on open-ended contracts; and

• establish a register of companies, and introduce effective administrative control procedures for activity in the construction sector and in public works.

In the event, parliament did not even debate this draft law. The ruling People's Party (Partido Popular, PP), which has an absolute parliamentary majority, voted against holding a debate and was supported by the abstention of the conservative nationalist parties, the Catalan Convergència i Unió (CiU) and the Canary Islands Coalición Canaria (CC). The law was supported only by the left-wing parties - the Socialist Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE) and the United Left (Izquierda Unida, IU) - and the Mixed Group (Grupo Mixto- made up of various nationalist parties). The construction sector trade unions have severely criticised the government and the People's Party for preventing the debate and have announced mobilisations over the next few months.