Social work is closely linked to the government, to non-profit organisations and, increasingly, to companies that offer social services as a business. Due to the nature of the work and the way in which it is organised, social workers who work directly with clients are subject to a high degree of flexibility and a lack of job security. They sometimes form part of a chain of subcontracting relationships and therefore have no direct connection with the primary contracting organisation.
Bargaining and collective agreements in the economic area of social work – as a specific category within the overall sector of health and social work – are an emerging trend in Spain. The professions associated with social work activities have developed without formal and institutional regulation, though this has begun to be corrected in the last two years. The First Agreement of the Social Work Sector in the Community of Madrid was signed in November 2006, aimed at standardising and improving employment relations and working conditions in this subsector.
Profile of social work
Social work is closely linked to the government, to non-profit organisations and, increasingly, to companies that offer social services as a business. Due to the nature of the work and the way in which it is organised, social workers who work directly with clients are subject to a high degree of flexibility and a lack of job security. They sometimes form part of a chain of subcontracting relationships and therefore have no direct connection with the primary contracting organisation.
The work contracts entered into with the subcontracted companies sometimes fail to guarantee appropriate working conditions. Moreover, the situation arises where workers contracted through different authorities may find themselves working side by side.
Sectoral agreement
The ECO Platform, established in 2002 to defend social workers and other professionals involved in social work, played a major role in the bargaining of the recent First Agreement of the Social Work Sector in the Community of Madrid. A sectoral assessment found that the specific category of social work activities was undervalued and enjoyed little recognition in society. It suffered from high mobility among the workers, little stability in the programmes available, and poor quality of service.
As a result of these findings, an agreement was negotiated and signed in November 2006 by the Association of Personal Care Service Companies (Asociación de Empresas de Servicios de Atención a las Personas, AESAP), the National Association of Mental Health Nursing (Asociación Nacional de Enfermería de Salud Mental, ANESM), the Trade Union Confederation of Workers’ Commissions (Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras, CC.OO) and the General Workers’ Confederation (Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT).
The main points of the agreement are the following:
equal rights in the workforce – the workers continue to do their work regardless of the organisation providing the service;
conversion of temporary employment contracts into permanent ones, as promoted by the latest labour reform (ES0605019I);
clear definitions of professional categories and equal pay;
internal promotion;
clearly defined basic pay and supplements;
annual review of the Retail Prices Index (RPI);
working week of 35 hours or 30 hours in the summer period;
31 days’ holiday;
promotion of worker participation;
continuing training during working time;
annual medical check-ups, and accident and civil liability insurance;
extra days off work;
improvements in maternity leave, marriage leave, unpaid leave and retirement options.
Agreement objectives
The main objective behind this negotiation process was to achieve social and professional recognition for the profession, given that social work has long been undervalued. The ECO Platform wished to avoid a situation whereby social work was considered as poor work by poor people for poor people. Social workers find it difficult to pursue a career and lead their personal lives because they are often self-employed or employed on temporary contracts that only last for the duration of particular projects. They frequently have to combine several jobs in order to earn a decent wage.
The new agreement establishes longer employment contracts of two to three years duration and the right of equality of workforces, in order to protect the workers from the unpredictable nature of the projects and changing decisions of the contracting organisations. The agreement also considers training as an integral part of the work and has, moreover, introduced the issue of health and safety at work.
In terms of daily working conditions, the first aim of the agreement was to standardise pay and conditions between professionals contracted by different organisations but doing the same work, carrying out the same tasks and using the same skills, sometimes even in the same physical space or area of action. The workers’ skills are also defined in the agreement. Such variations had been the case, for example, in the District Social Services of the Community of Madrid.
In Spain, there are currently only two similar agreements, one in the Valencian Community in the east of the country and a groundbreaking pact reached in the Biscay province in the northern Basque region in early 2006.
Celine Lafoucriere, CIREM Foundation
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (2007), Collective agreement in social work subsector, article.
