UGT launches popular legislative initiative on employment stability and safety

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In November 2001, Spain's UGT trade union confederation launched a 'popular legislative initiative' on stability and safety in employment, demanding guarantees of quality in employment and a reduction in the industrial accident rate. UGT has six months to collect the 500,000 signatures required to present the initiative to parliament.

On 20 November 2001, the General Workers' Confederation (Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT) launched a 'popular legislative initiative' (Iniciativa Legislativa Popular, ILP) on 'stability and safety in employment', which demands guarantees of quality in employment and a reduction in the industrial accident rate. The ILP is a procedure provided for under the Spanish Constitution that allows citizens to present proposals directly to parliament if they are endorsed by a certain number of signatures. UGT has six months to collect the 500,000 signatures necessary for parliament to consider the initiative.

Through its ILP, UGT proposes a reform of labour regulations aimed at:

• establishing more 'rational' regulations on the use of temporary contracts, in order to avoid the common cases of abuse and to foster recruitment on permanent contracts;

• regulating part-time employment so as to allow companies to meet their needs and employees to combine work with their family and personal life;

• defining the responsibilities of employers and the guarantees and rights of workers in cases of subcontracting, and with regard to health and safety at work; and

• reducing and regulating working time to improve health and safety in the sectors and activities with the greatest risk.

UGT claims that these regulatory measures are necessary in order to improve stability and safety in employment, particularly for the large proportion of the labour force on temporary contracts - a total of 3,700,000 workers (or 33% of all wage earners). The number of workers on temporary contracts has increased by 25% since 1994 (ES0109201F), despite the stimulus to permanent recruitment provided by the intersectoral agreement on employment stability signed by the trade unions and employers' organisations in April 1997 (ES9706211F), which has led to the recruitment of 1,600,000 workers on permanent contracts. Temporary recruitment affects in particular younger workers, of whom seven out of 10 are on temporary contracts, and employees of subcontractor companies. The lack of job security, it is claimed, makes it difficult for them to obtain professional qualifications, causes problems of motivation, and above all involves greater exposure to industrial accidents (ES0106147F).

One of the sectors with the highest rates of temporary employment, subcontracting and industrial accidents (ES0004282F) is construction, in which temporary contracts affect 70% of the workers, 90% of whom are in subcontractor companies. In the first half of 2001, the industrial accident rate increased by 5.81% (compared with an increase of 11.7% in 2000). In March 2001, UGT and the Trade Union Confederation of Workers' Commissions (Comisiones Obreras, CC.OO) called a 24-hour general strike in the sector, in which 90% of the workers took part. Its aim was to urge the government to take measures to regulate subcontracting and reduce industrial accidents.

Also in March 2001, the government adopted a labour market reform without obtaining the consensus of the social partners (ES0103237F). In the opinion of UGT, this reform was ineffective in dealing with employment instability and safety problems. The aim of the new popular legislative initiative is therefore to make progress in these areas and to alleviate what the union sees as the regressive effects of certain measures that were included in the reform (such as deregulation of part-time employment) (ES0109259N).