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Spanish trade unions have called a 24-hour general strike on 20 June 2002, mainly triggered by opposition to a recent government reform of the unemployment insurance system, which threatens the benefit of unemployed people who do not accept the offer of a 'suitable job'. This is the first general strike call since 1994, and it comes during the Spanish Presidency of the EU and on the eve of the Seville European Council.
On 27 May 2002, the conservative People's Party (Partido Popular, PP) government adopted Royal Decree-Law 5/2002 on reform of the unemployment insurance system. The key point of the reform is that unemployed people will have their entitlement to unemployment benefit cut or removed completely if they refuse the offer of a 'suitable job' (empleo adecuado) by the public employment services. Furthermore, the reform moves towards abolishing the current system of workers continuing to receive their wages while awaiting the resolution of an unfair dismissal claim. Other measures include: a reform of the special unemployment insurance scheme for agriculture; the abolition of unemployment insurance contributions for subsidised public employment; and the abolition of the possibility of taking benefit in a lump sum to start up a business.
The trade unions are calling for the total withdrawal of the reform. Largely in protest at the changes, the Trade Union Confederation of Workers' Commissions (Comisiones Obreras, CC.OO) and the General Workers' Confederation (Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT) called a 24-hour general strike for 20 June 2002. The aim of the strike is to call for improvements in unemployment benefit and the creation of an economic model based on full, stable employment with rights. The unions wish to see a progressive tax reform, an end to the high industrial accident rate (ES0202213F) and the recovery of the purchasing power of civil servants' pay (ES0107149N). The joint slogan of CC.OO and UGT is Employment and social protection are your rights. Don't let them take them away (Empleo y protección social son tus derechos, que no te los quiten).
This is the first time that a general strike has been called since 1994, and it comes during the Spanish Presidency of the EU and on the eve of the European Council summit of heads of state in Seville on 21-22 June. It is also the first major strike against the policy of the PP government.
The government has accused the trade unions of not wishing to negotiate over the reform. It has also stated that the unions have chosen a bad time to call a strike 'against the image and interests of the country'. However, it has offered to change the definition of 'suitable jobs' so that workers would be expected to travel only up to 30 kilometres away from home and spend up to two hours travelling per day for a job, instead of the 50 kilometres and three hours laid down in the reform, and to consider (at the discretion of the public employment service) the family situation of unemployed people. The government also insists that there will be no cuts in benefit and that 'society cannot show solidarity towards persons who do not want a job.'
The Spanish Confederation of Employers' Organisations (Confederación Española de Organizaciones Empresariales, CEOE) and the Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (Confederación Española de la Pequeña y Mediana Empresa, CEPYME) share the general spirit of the reform, and state that it is based on the agreements reached at the European Council summits in Lisbon in March 2000 (EU0004241F) and Barcelona in March 2002 (EU0203205F). They feel that the reform represents a 'suitable change of approach'.
However, the employers also recommend a reform of the sources of funding of unemployment benefit, to separate it from social security contributions (which support contributory benefits) and state taxes (which support non-contributory benefits). They are concerned about the reform of agricultural unemployment insurance, because it could increase costs for the sector. CEOE and CEPYME are against abolishing unemployment contributions for subsidised public employment, because this would create unfair competition with private companies operating in the same sector. They consider that abolishing the possibility to take benefit as a lump sum goes against the 'entrepreneurial spirit' fostered by the current measure. They therefore feel that the number of start-up businesses eligible for this measure should be increased. Finally, the employers advise the government to improve collaboration between central and regional governments and to improve the management of employment services.
The context of the unemployment reform and the general strike is that in recent times the social dialogue process has led to disputes between the social partners and the government. Whereas in its first few years in office the PP government's reforms were gradual, they have recently been introduced with greater force. The government, according to critics, has gone from a strategy of selective dialogue combined with a policy of concertation, which led to one of the longest periods of industrial peace in the last few decades, to a strategy of direct confrontation, with hardly any social dialogue. This was allegedly the case with: the introduction of the previous labour market reform in 2001, which received no support from the trade unions (ES0103237F); the 2001 pensions reform, which had the support of CC.OO but not of UGT (ES0201250N); the 2001 Law on Universities (ES0111210F); recent legislation on vocational training and the quality of education; and now the reform of unemployment insurance.
For opponents, the unemployment reform, by making receipt of benefit dependent on willingness to accept a 'suitable job' (at the discretion of the public employment service), means a substantial cut in the right to unemployment benefit as well as an implicit reduction in the right to compensation for dismissal (through the abolition of 'interim wages' while awaiting the outcome of an unfair dismissal case). This, it is claimed, involves a change in the rights of all wage earners, whose social protection will be threatened when they lose their job through no fault of their own.