Survey finds general satisfaction with content of collective agreements

Albarracín, Daniel

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Article

Survey finds general satisfaction with content of collective agreements

Published: 7 April 2004

The Spanish Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs published the results of its 2003 Survey of Quality of Life at Work (ECVT) in early 2004. This article highlights the results on workers' satisfaction with their collective agreements, pay and work, and the information they receive on workplace risks. Among the findings is that workers generally make a positive evaluation of the content of collective agreements.

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The Spanish Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs published the results of its 2003 Survey of Quality of Life at Work (ECVT) in early 2004. This article highlights the results on workers' satisfaction with their collective agreements, pay and work, and the information they receive on workplace risks. Among the findings is that workers generally make a positive evaluation of the content of collective agreements.

Since 1999, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales, MTAS) has conducted an annual Survey of Quality of Life at Work (Encuesta de Calidad de Vida en el Trabajo, ECVT) (ES0305204F). The findings of the 2003 survey- which involved 6,020 respondents (62% men, 38% women) who were in employment (either wage earners or 'non-employees' such as self-employed people) - were published in early 2004. In ES0403107F we look at the findings of the survey with regard to matters such as working time flexibility, part-time and temporary work, stress and the main sources of satisfaction at work. Here we examine the results on employees' satisfaction with their collective agreements, pay and work, and the information they receive on workplace risks. The ECVT survey provides some direct insights into the perceptions of employees on important industrial relations issues, regardless of the views of the social partners.

Satisfaction with collective agreements

Respondents were asked to evaluate the contents of the collective agreements which govern their employment relationship. As indicated by table 1 below, in general their evaluation of the content of agreements was positive, except with regard to the provisions on social benefits. Furthermore, the evaluation was only moderately positive with regard to pay and wage supplements. There was, however, general satisfaction with provisions on holidays, the duration of working time and health and safety at work.

**Table 1. Employees' evaluation of the contents of collective agreements (%)**
Issue	Good	Indifferent	Bad	Don't know
Total duration of working time	61.0	24.6	11.3	3.1
Pay and wage supplements	39.7	29.5	27.4	3.4
Health and safety at work	59.7	24.6	11.9	3.9
Occupational classifications and training	46.9	30.0	16.4	6.7
Measures to address gender discrimination	56.5	18.4	10.1	15.1
Holidays	65.6	21.2	9.3	3.9
Social benefits	27.8	27.5	32.8	11.8

Source: MTAS, ECVT 2003.

Satisfaction with pay

The survey found that the majority perception of pay among employed people was one of satisfaction - see table 2 below. There was greater satisfaction among men than among women, among public sector workers than among private sector workers, and among employers and people who work in family businesses than among employees in general (ES0202209F). Employees of small companies expressed a very slightly greater satisfaction than those of large companies.

**Table 2. Satisfaction with pay, by sex, sector and size of employing company (%)**
.	Very satisfied	Satisfied	Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied	Dissatisfied	Very dissatisfied	Don't know
Total	4.6	42.2	28.3	19.4	4.7	0.7
Sex
Men	5.3	43.2	28.1	18.5	4.1	0.9
Women	3.5	40.5	28.7	21.0	5.8	0.4
Employment situation
Employees	4.0	41.5	28.5	20.3	5.0	0.6
- public sector	6.2	45.9	26.4	18.1	2.7	0.6
- private sector	3.5	40.5	29.0	20.8	5.6	0.6
Employer or professional with employees	12.9	51.3	22.9	8.7	3.1	1.1
Professional or self-employed without employees	5.0	41.3	30.0	19.1	3.4	1.2
Non-wage earner in family business	4.7	52.0	20.8	12.4	3.7	6.4
Wage-earner in family business	12.1	51.4	22.0	12.0	2.5	0.0
Member of cooperative	0.0	55.2	29.1	11.9	3.8	0.0
Other situation	0.0	52.1	47.9	0.0	0.0	0.0
Don't know	0.0	37.6	0.0	0.0	62.4	0.0
Company size
Under 10 workers	4.4	43.1	29.1	18.4	4.2	0.8
10 to 49 workers	5.4	42.4	27.9	19.0	4.9	0.5
50 to 249 workers	3.6	43.7	27.6	19.6	5.1	0.4
250 or more workers	5.1	41.3	27.3	21.1	4.2	1.0
Don't know	4.3	36.6	29.4	21.6	7.2	0.9

Source: MTAS, ECVT 2003.

Information on workplace risks

The 1995 Occupational Risk Prevention Law (Ley de Prevención de Riesgos Laborales) (ES0301208F) requires employers to provide employees with proper information on the risks and hazards of their job. According to the 2003 ECVT - see table 3 below - the sectors in which information is most frequently provided are production and distribution of electricity, gas and water, and fisheries. The sectors in which information is least frequently provided are education, other social activities and personal services and homes that employ domestic service.

**Table 3. Frequency with which employed people are informed by their employer (or inform themselves in case of self-employed) on the occupational hazards of their work, by sector (%)**
.	Always	Frequently	Sometimes	Almost never	Never	Don't know
Total	46.7	24.5	13.0	6.1	5.7	4.1
Agriculture, animal husbandry, hunting and forestry	40.4	30.7	16.5	2.3	5.5	4.6
Fisheries	66.1	29.8	0.0	4.1	0.0	0.0
Mining industries	39.2	33.4	13.8	11.0	2.6	0.0
Manufacturing	45.7	25.8	14.7	5.5	4.2	4.1
Production and distribution of electricity, gas and water	74.4	18.5	7.1	0.0	0.0	0.0
Construction	54.2	22.1	10.5	5.1	4.7	3.3
Retailing and repairs	45.1	29.2	10.8	8.6	3.2	3.1
Hotels and catering	34.5	29.9	11.7	9.0	8.1	6.9
Transport, warehouses and communications	54.4	21.3	12.5	4.5	3.8	3.5
Financial mediation	30.2	25.3	11.4	13.7	0.0	19.4
Real estate and rentals, business services	46.4	20.7	13.6	4.4	11.7	3.2
Public administration, defence, social security etc	39.7	27.9	16.7	6.8	5.9	3.0
Education	33.9	15.6	12.2	14.3	16.5	7.6
Health and veterinary sector social services	45.6	19.8	13.9	5.3	10.0	5.3
Other social activities, personal services	26.2	24.1	17.5	13.9	12.3	6.0
Homes that employ domestic staff	38.3	14.4	12.3	12.2	9.4	13.4
Don't know	61.2	19.7	13.4	0.0	5.7	0.0

Source: MTAS, ECVT 2003.

Satisfaction with work

In relation to people's overall degree of satisfaction with the work, the majority response was very positive - see table 4 below. However, men show greater satisfaction than women and non-employees far more than employees.

**Table 4. Employed people's degree of satisfaction with work, by sex and employment status (%)**
.	Very satisfied	Satisfied	Not very satisfied	Don't know
Total	49.5	38.8	8.3	3.4
Sex
Men	50.2	38.7	7.4	3.6
Women	48.2	38.9	9.8	3.1
Employment status
Employees	47.2	40.6	8.8	3.4
Non-employees	59.2	31.2	6.0	3.6
Don't know	0.0	37.6	62.4	0.0

Source: MTAS, ECVT 2003.

Commentary

The ECVT respondents' average assessment of the content of collective agreements, pay, information on occupational risks and satisfaction with work offers an optimistic view, though this type of survey arguably tends to elicit fairly favourable responses. Some differences can be observed. Women are less satisfied than men with their pay, and employees are significantly less satisfied with working and employment conditions than non-employees. The aspects that receive the worst - and generally negative - scores are social benefits and pay. (Daniel Albarracín, CIREM Foundation)

Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.

Eurofound (2004), Survey finds general satisfaction with content of collective agreements, article.