Actors and institutions in Spain

The main bodies dealing with social dialogue and working conditions are the Ministry of Labour and Social Economy and the employment departments of the autonomous communities. The ministry plays an important role in fostering tripartite social dialogue. Moreover, these institutions are in charge of registering collective agreements and providing statistical information on aspects of collective bargaining coverage, negotiated wages, disputes, etc. Once a collective agreement has been concluded, the signatory parties must send the agreement to the public authority (the Ministry of Labour and Social Economy if it is a national agreement and the employment departments of the autonomous communities if it is a regional one) within 15 days. Prior to registering the agreement, the public authorities make sure that its content is in line with legislation. If the collective agreement goes against legislation, the public authority can challenge it.

The main institution ensuring the enforcement of employees’ rights is the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate. It does so through the labour inspectorates. Labour inspectorates are in charge of monitoring working conditions, the relationships between trade unions and social security (registering workers for social security, monitoring contributions paid to social security, etc.).

The labour inspectorates are also in charge of monitoring the implementation of health and safety regulations. Their functions include, among others, validating and promoting the implementation of the health and safety regulations, assessing how well companies apply health and safety regulations, drafting reports concerning work accidents and professional diseases, suggesting penalties to the Labour Administration in cases of non-compliance and ordering the stoppage of work in dangerous circumstances.

In Spain, the concept of representativeness guarantees erga omnes representation for both trade unions and employer organisations. Thus, it endows the most representative trade unions and employer organisations with the capacity to negotiate agreements on behalf of all workers in the sector or company in which the agreement is negotiated.

The main legal criterion for determining the representativeness of trade unions is based on the workplace election results of workers’ delegates and works council members. Accordingly, the electoral process aiming to appoint the employee representatives for the workplace is used to measure trade union support. The criterion for determining the representativeness of employer organisations is based on membership.

Through the concept of the ‘most representative organisations’, employer organisations and trade unions are entitled to conclude multi-employer collective agreements, to have institutional representation (in other words, to be a part of tripartite bodies, to be consulted by the government and to conclude social pacts) and to take part in extrajudicial systems of labour conflict resolution. Moreover, meeting the criterion of legal representativeness is the basis for getting access to public funds.

About trade union representation

According to the Organic Law of Trade Union Freedom (1985), all workers can join trade unions except members of the Spanish Armed Forces, judges and public prosecutors.

Trade union density in Spain has remained rather stable since the early 1980s. Even though the lack of reliable data makes it difficult to assess, most estimates have identified 15–20% as the density rate in Spain since the early 1980s. Even though trade union density has been subject to cyclical fluctuations, it does not exhibit a clear downward trend, as it does in other EU Member States. However, since the onset of the crisis trade union density has slightly decreased, according to the figures provided by the Working and Living Conditions Survey conducted by the Ministry of Labour and Social Economy (17.4% in 2008 compared with 16.4% in 2010). Unfortunately, the survey has not been conducted since 2010. Since the Great Recession, union density in Spain has declined from 17.8% in 2020 to 13.0.% in 2018, according to figures from OECD/AIAS Database.

The main criteria for determining union representativeness is the electoral audience, which is determined by the number of delegates and works council representatives obtained through elections. This, together with the automatic extension of collective agreements, explains the low union density rates in Spain, as workers have limited incentives to join trade unions.

Trade union membership and density, 2010–2019

Notes: * Proportion of employees who are members of a trade union. ** Trade (labour) union membership of employees derived from the total union membership and adjusted, if necessary, for trade union members outside the active, dependent and employed labour force (i.e. retired workers, self-employed workers, students, unemployed people).

Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies Institutional Characteristics of Trade Unions, Wage Setting, State Intervention and Social Pacts database 2021.

Main trade union confederations and federations

The most representative trade union confederations in Spain are the Trade Union Confederation of Workers’ Commissions (Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras, CCOO) and the General Union of Workers (Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT), which together account for 67.43% of works council representatives elected in 2020.

Main trade union confederations

Sources: * CCOO, 2015. ** ABC Economía, 2019. *** Activos, 2021. **** UGT Transparency Portal (https://www.ugt.es/portal-de-transparencia/C%C3%B3mo%20Somos#1). ***** UGT Transparency Portal (https://www.ugt.es/portal-de-transparencia/C%C3%B3mo%20somos).

In addition to the most representative confederations at national level, there are some smaller confederations, including Trade Union Workers Unity and the General Workers’ Confederation. The most representative confederations at regional level are the Galician Inter-sectoral Confederation and Basque Workers Solidarity. The third most important confederation in the public sector is the Independent and Civil Servant Central Trade Union.

The last UGT congress was held in May 2021, and Mr Pepe Álvarez was re-elected as General Secretary (he took office in 2016 after replacing Mr Cándido Méndez, who had been General Secretary for 22 years). CCOO’s most recent congress was held in October 2021, and they named as General Secretary Mr Unai Sordo (who has been in office since 2017).

Since the 1990s, the most important trade unions at national level, UGT and CCOO, have maintained a cooperative relationship and unity of action. They have also maintained their representativeness.

The most important changes relate to mergers of federations that both trade unions carried out in 2014. CCOO merged the Federation of Textile, Chemical and Related Activities with the Industry Federation. It also merged the Federation of Commerce, Hotels and Restaurants, Tourism and Gambling with the Federation of Financial Services to form the new Federation of Services. UGT merged the Federation of Transport with the Federation of Commerce, Hotels and Restaurants, Catering Trade, Tourism and Gambling to form the new Federation of Services for Mobility and Consumption.

More recently, in May 2016, new federations were created within the UGT: the Federation of Public Services employees, formed by the previous public services federation (the Federation of Public Service Employees) and education federation (Federation of Education Workers); and the Industry, Construction and Agriculture Federation, formed by the union of the Federation of Metal and Construction and the Federation of Agriculture.

By 2020, CCOO had seven sectoral federations (for construction, teaching, industry, pensioners, health and social services, citizenship services, services) while UGT has six (the Federation of Public Service Employees; the Federation of Services for Mobility and Consumption; the Industry, Construction and Agriculture Federation; the Union of Retirees and Pensioners; the Small Farmers’ Union; and the Union of Professionals and Autonomous Workers).

For both unions, the mergers were carried out in order to combat the decline in financial resources from membership fees and public financing. The regional federations have resorted to implementing collective redundancies to adapt their organisational structures to declining resources. This contrasts with the growth of the General Workers’ Confederation. The confederation is currently the third most representative union organisation at national level in terms of membership, notably in the region of Catalonia, where the union’s membership base increased by 40% between 2019 and 2022 (El Salto, 2022). Nevertheless, the growth recorded by this union organisation does not offset the overall reduction in union membership in recent years.

About employer representation

Employer organisations do not have a legal text that regulates their rights and obligations, like the trade unions do with the Organic Law of Trade Union Freedom (1985).

The procedures to verify the representativeness of the employer organisations are not clearly established. There is a lack of official and institutional procedures for checking if the employer organisations that claim to be representative meet the legal requirements. In addition, there are no official figures regarding affiliation to employer organisations. As such, the only figures available are those provided by the employer organisations themselves.

The absence of figures on employer organisation membership does not mean a lack of legitimacy or social recognition of the most representative associations at national level. The most representative employer organisations – the Spanish Confederation of Employers’ Organisations (CEOE) and the Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (Cepyme) – are recognised by employers, trade unions and the government. Moreover, there are no potential competitors that can challenge their status.

In November 2018, Mr Antonio Garamendi was elected as the new president of the CEOE. Mr Garamendi was the only candidate in the elections and was elected by acclamation. He replaced Mr Juan Rosell, who had been President since December 2010. Until the elections, Mr Garamendi was president of Cepyme.

Employer organisation membership and density, 2012–2020

Notes: * Percentage of employees working in an establishment that is a member of any employer organisation that is involved in collective bargaining. n.a., not available.

Source: ** Ministry of Labour and Social Economy, Annual Labour Survey 2021.

Main employer organisations

The CEOE and Cepyme are the most representative employer organisations. There are no official figures regarding affiliation to employer organisations, but the CEOE states that it represents 2 million companies and 12 million employees through its 225 federations. Cepyme claims to represent nearly all (99%) small and medium-sized companies in Spain through a network of 57 territorial (provincial) associations, 49 national sectoral associations and 3,000 grassroots organisations, although it does not provide figures for companies and employees.

Main employer organisation confederations

Sources: * CEOE website (https://www.ceoe.es/es/asociados/miembros-actuales) ** Cepyme website (https://cepyme.es/quienes-somos/).

Tripartite and bipartite bodies and concertation

The main tripartite body is the Spanish Economic and Social Council (Consejo Económico y Social de España). It is a consultative body created in 1991 that submits reports to the government before laws and royal decrees are enacted. Moreover, it investigates different topics on its own initiative. In most regions, there is a tripartite economic and social council with similar functions and a similar composition to the national one. However, in some regions these bodies ceased their activities due to a lack of funding during the Great Recession.

Industrial observatories are important tripartite bodies operating at sectoral level. There are 10 observatories in different industry sectors and in the construction sector. These tripartite bodies were created in 2005 in order to improve and extend the analytical information available on the sectors. The aim of the observatories is to foster debate and to identify strengths and weaknesses in order to promote efficient industrial policies. However, their activity has dramatically decreased since the onset of the crisis, and nowadays they have been practically dismantled. Another tripartite body is the National Advisory Commission for Collective Agreements (Comisión Consultiva Nacional de Convenios Colectivos), created by Royal Decree 1362/2012. It is a consultative body responsible for tasks such as proposing and determining the functional scope of collective agreements. It is also involved in monitoring collective agreements, including their information, analysis, documentation and dissemination.

The most important bipartite body is the Interconfederal Service of Mediation and Arbitration. It is financed entirely by the state and managed autonomously by the social partners. It manages industrial conflicts by offering industrial dispute resolution mechanisms.

In spite of the existence of tripartite and bipartite bodies, social pacts and peak intersectoral agreements are not negotiated by any of the existing institutional bodies.

With regard to bipartite agreements, since the mid-1990s peak intersectoral agreements for collective bargaining have been signed between the most representative trade unions and employer organisations. These agreements have been signed, with only short interruptions in 2012, in 2015 and more recently in 2018. Although these are not mandatory agreements and only provide guidelines on various issues, such as pay increases, they provide some degree of coordination and a general framework for collective bargaining.

With the advent of the sovereign debt crisis and the implementation of austerity policies, tripartite social dialogue was discontinued. Only since 2014, at the start of the economic recovery, have some tripartite pacts on specific issues been signed. Tripartite social dialogue seemed to gain momentum in 2018, when agreements on youth employment and decent work were signed.

Main tripartite and bipartite bodies

Source: Based on authors’ elaboration.

The main bodies for workplace-level representation in the private sector are workers’ delegates and works councils. In the public sector, workplace-level representation is provided through Juntas de Personal .

Workers’ delegates are responsible for representing workers in establishments and workplaces with between 11 and 49 employees. There may also be a workers’ delegate in undertakings with 6 to 10 employees, provided that the decision to form one is reached by the majority of the employees. Undertakings with up to 30 employees can have one workers’ delegate, and three workers’ delegates are allowed in undertakings with between 31 and 49 employees.

Works councils are employee representative bodies in workplaces with 50 or more workers. In the case of companies with two or more establishments in the same province or bordering municipalities with fewer than 50 employees in each workplace but 50 or more employees as a whole, a joint workers’ committee may be established (according to Article 64 of the Revised text of the Workers’ Statute, published in the Official State Gazette, No. 75/1995, on 29 March 1995).

In addition, any workers affiliated to a union can constitute a trade union’s section within their enterprise.

Elections for workers’ delegates and works council members can be called by the most representative trade union organisations (those that have a membership of at least 10% of company representatives or employees in a workplace by majority agreement). Those who call the elections must inform the company and the public labour authorities of their intentions at least one month in advance. In addition, elections may be called at a more general level in one or several functional or territorial areas, subject to the agreement of the most representative trade unions.

According to Spanish legislation, these bodies can also exercise information and consultation rights and can conclude company-level collective agreements. In this regard, it is worth noting that a recent regulation (Royal Decree 7/2011) gave priority to trade union’s sections over works councils in concluding company-level collective agreements when workers affiliated to the trade unions have a majority of seats in the workers’ committee.

According to the European Company Survey, the percentage of establishments that have any form of employee representation decreased from 57% in 2013 to 38% in 2019.

Regulation, composition and competence of the representative bodies

Note: * According to the law, the most representative trade unions are those that constitute 10% of workers’ delegates and members of workers’ committees at state level and 15% within the autonomous communities. Similarly, trade unions that have a membership comprising 10% or more of workers’ delegates and members of workers’ committees in a specific territorial and functional sphere are considered representative within that sphere.

Source: Trade union freedom law 11/1985.