Social Consultation Agreement signed in Andalusia

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On 25 January, the Junta (government) of Andalusia, Employers’ Confederation of Andalusia (Confederación de Empresarios de Andalucía, CEA) and the trade unions UGT and CCOO signed the Sixth Social Consultation Agreement in this autonomous community for the period 2005-2008. The agreement marks the continuation of other regional agreements that, according to the signatories, have helped to create jobs and maintain a high and sustained economic growth in Andalusia (a region that is included in Objective 1 of the EU) over the last 10 years.

Main objectives of the agreement

The government and social partner signatories to the latest Social Consultation Agreement in Andalusia all feel that there are three basic challenges to be faced in the economic and social context in the next few years. The first is the European constitution and the intensified process of European integration. The second is the increasing impact of globalisation and information and communication technologies (ICT) in the economy and in society as a whole. The third is the consolidation of knowledge and innovation as major factors of the new economy and of economic competitiveness.

Against this background, the agreement puts forward two priority objectives:

1. To bring Andalusia closer to the prosperous regions of the EU by achieving 75% of the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of the European Union (EU);

2. To increase the number of employed persons to three million over the next few years.

Furthermore, the Andalusian government and the social partners set the following medium-term objectives to be attained during the four-year period of the agreement:

• Increase in Internet and web activity: more than 90% of Andalusian companies should have Internet access and more than 50% should have their own website. All municipalities should have Internet access and more than 40% of the population should use the Internet regularly.

• Promotion of electronic management by the public administration, to cover 75% of the services and procedures provided to companies and citizens.

• Doubling of expenditure on research and development and increasing Andalusian productivity to close to 90% of the EU average.

• Increasing female employment by 20% to reach a female participation rate of 85% of the EU average.

• Improving employment stability by increasing the recruitment of permanent employees by 20%.

• Fostering lifelong learning to attain a figure of 75% of employed persons with a secondary or higher education.

• Increasing the number of companies in Andalusia to over 500,000.

Key provisions

As can be seen, the intermediate or partial objectives are quantified to some extent. In order to attain these goals, the agreement is divided into a series of strands containing measures that are mostly not quantified or specified. In this respect, the agreement differs from the Strategic Agreement for Internationalisation, Employment Quality and Competitiveness signed in Catalonia in February 2005 (see ES0503206F), which provides far more details of the specific measures to be carried out and the funds that will be assigned to them. The basic strands of the policies agreed by the Andalusian government and the social partners are set out here.

Information and knowledge society

This section receives the most attention in the formulation of the arguments and in the criteria for achieving progress. Many criteria are considered and articulated through six different dimensions:

• extending the use of ICT;

• promoting the incorporation of ICT in the production system;

• introducing broadband networks of Internet access;

• developing digital services aimed at citizens;

• improving infrastructures for research and technological development;

• introducing ICT in schools.

Despite the importance that is given to this area, most of the measures are merely stated as ideas or as aspects to be reinforced, without specifying the measures or the funding that will be assigned to them.

Productivity and innovation in the economy

Similarly, this strand is based more on principles and ideas than on specific actions, the focus being on:

• developing an Andalusian system of Science-Technology-Enterprise-Society;

• promoting technological development and business innovation, and consolidating business cooperation to achieve this;

• extending the business model;

• improving the intangible factors (quality, design, etc.) of company competitiveness.

Culture of employment quality

Three dimensions are highlighted under this strand:

• active employment policies;

• health and safety at work;

• industrial relations.

Again, with the exception of health and safety at work, these are merely mentioned but not specified, despite the fact that increasing employment is one of the two priority objectives of the Agreement.

Enterprise capacity

This is the strand with the most detailed and precise measures, involving actions such as:

• fostering an enterprise culture and increasing motivation;

• promoting the extension of the business model and increasing mechanisms of support for entrepreneurs;

• improving the administrative environment to facilitate the creation of companies.

The actions to foster an enterprise culture in education, and to promote an enterprise culture in society as a whole, are clearly detailed and very specific.

Sectors of production

On this point, the Agreement simply underlines the importance of different sectors of activity for the Andalusian economy and mentions some of the actions that are already being carried out in these areas outside the agreement.

Cohesion policies

Here, the agreement outlines general criteria to be followed regarding diverse issues, including:

• infrastructure;

• regional and coastal planning;

• rural development;

• housing;

• the environment;

• care services for dependent persons.

Permanent social dialogue

The agreement stresses the importance of social dialogue and working together, and this strand covers all the institutional areas in which the social partners are already participating.

Commentary

The Sixth Social Consultation Agreement adopts the same broad approach as the agreements that have been drawn up in Andalusia in previous years. However, one major weakness is that it fails to specify precise measures or identify funding to deal with the objectives as set out, and fails to outline the actions and policies through which progress is to be made with regard to these objectives. It includes two strands that have not been considered in previous processes of agreement: Section 4, on enterprise capacity, and Section 6, on cohesion policies. The measures aimed at fostering enterprise capacity are the most detailed in the Agreement - perhaps not surprising, given the specific objective of the agreement to increase the number of enterprises in Andalusia to 500,000 and the total number of employed persons to three million. The same level of detail is not present in the cohesion policies, nor in the other elements of the Agreement.

While the Agreement outlines at length general guidelines for action and refers to actions that will be carried out by future 'working groups', its main shortcoming is the lack of precise detail. This is particularly the case in areas such as employment integration for disadvantaged groups, extending the content of collective bargaining, improving electronic management of the public administration to serve companies and citizens, and actions aimed at avoiding delocalisation, among many others. The exceptions are Section 4 on fostering enterprise capacity and promoting an enterprise culture (in line with EU employment policies), and Section 3 on health and safety at work, in which the activities carried out by consensus in other institutional areas allow proposals to be specified far more than in the other areas. (Andreu Lope, QUIT- UAB)