The Declaration for Social Dialogue (Competitiveness, stable employment and social cohesion - 87Kb pdf; in Spanish) [1]- signed between the main Spanish trade unions CC.OO [2] and UGT [3], the employer association CEOE (in Spanish) [4] and the Spanish Government in July 2004 - identified two main problems affecting the Spanish labour market: a low employment rate and a relatively high presence of temporary employment. In order to solve these problems, and within the framework of this Declaration, the signing parties agreed, among other measures, on the setting up of an experts’ commission with the aim of evaluating Spanish employment policies since the 1990s. The result of the experts’ commission has been a report entitled, ‘More and better employment in a new socioeconomic scenario: For an effective labour flexibility and security’ (761Kb pdf; in Spanish) [5] (Más y mejor empleo en un nuevo escenario socioeconómico: Por una flexibilidad y seguridad laborales efectivas), published in January 2005.[1] http://www.ilo.org/public/spanish/region/ampro/cinterfor/temas/dialogo/inf_act/dsoc_esp.pdf[2] http://www.ccoo.es/bienvein.htm[3] http://www.ugt.es/ugtpordentro/cronoingles.html[4] http://www.ceoe.es/webceoe/htmls/inicio/inicio.html[5] http://www.tt.mtas.es/periodico/laboral/200501/informe.pdf
A 2005 report by an experts’ commission identifies the main problems affecting the Spanish labour market, as well as the main strengths and weaknesses of Spanish employment policies. The experts argue that a reasonable balance between flexibility and security is still required in Spain.
The Declaration for Social Dialogue (Competitiveness, stable employment and social cohesion - 87Kb pdf; in Spanish)- signed between the main Spanish trade unions CC.OO and UGT, the employer association CEOE (in Spanish) and the Spanish Government in July 2004 - identified two main problems affecting the Spanish labour market: a low employment rate and a relatively high presence of temporary employment. In order to solve these problems, and within the framework of this Declaration, the signing parties agreed, among other measures, on the setting up of an experts’ commission with the aim of evaluating Spanish employment policies since the 1990s. The result of the experts’ commission has been a report entitled, ‘More and better employment in a new socioeconomic scenario: For an effective labour flexibility and security’ (761Kb pdf; in Spanish) (Más y mejor empleo en un nuevo escenario socioeconómico: Por una flexibilidad y seguridad laborales efectivas), published in January 2005.
The report provides in-depth information on a number of issues, such as:
developments in the Spanish labour market in the last decade;
the existing Spanish legal framework for hiring people and its main strengths and weaknesses;
existing Spanish employment policies, their main strengths and weaknesses, and contradictions among them.
According to the experts, the main weaknesses of the Spanish labour market, for enterprises, are its lack of flexibility in quickly adapting to changing economic conditions. For employees, on the other hand, the labour market fails to provide them with security and stability in their employment conditions. Clear symptoms of these weaknesses include the relatively low Spanish employment rate and its unequal distribution among different groups, the high presence of temporary employment, the inefficient and unequal social protection coverage, and the low growth rate of labour productivity in the last decade.
| Spain | EU15 | EU25 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employment rate | 59.7 | 64.3 | 62.9 |
| - Men | 73.2 | 72.5 | 70.8 |
| - Women | 46.0 | 56.0 | 55.0 |
| - Population aged 15-24 years | 33.4 | 39.7 | 36.7 |
| - Population aged 25-54 years | 71.3 | 77.2 | 76.5 |
| - Population aged 55-64 years | 40.8 | 41.7 | 40.2 |
| Fixed term contracts (% of total employment) | 30.6 | 12.8 | 12.9 |
| - Men | 28.6 | 11.9 | 12.2 |
| - Women | 33.5 | 13.9 | 13.7 |
| Unemployment rate (% labour force) | 11.3 | 8.1 | 9.1 |
| - Men | 8.2 | 7.4 | 8.3 |
| - Women | 15.9 | 9.0 | 10.0 |
Source: Experts’ commission’s report, Madrid 2005
The report does not include a concrete and detailed list of proposals for reform, as the experts argue that this is the role of the social partners. However, the report does propose several recommendations to the social partners, from which they could draw inspiration. These can be summarised as follows:
Current employment and social policies do not meet the needs of the existing social and economic context. As a consequence, the protection offered by the present employment policies is not equitable among the population and, furthermore, is insufficient for certain underprivileged groups. This situation has to be addressed.
It is necessary to approach the reform of the Spanish employment policy from a global perspective. Since the approval of the Workers’ Statutes (Estatuto de los Trabajadores) in 1980, the institutional configuration of the Spanish labour market has been the result of a complex and long process of partial reforms, resulting sometimes in contradictory effects. According to the experts, this situation has to be resolved.
The employment policies should protect people and not jobs, so that the same person may benefit from a permanent flow of income, not necessarily linked to a single and lifelong job. In this context, actions to foster people’s employability and/or adaptability may become key tools for assuring job security, without compromising companies’ need for flexibility.
It is necessary that the employment policies in general, and specifically those aimed at people (re)entering the labour market, are continuously and rigorously evaluated. In fact, and as far as the Spanish context is concerned, a large number of these policies have been developed without a clear understanding of their effects on the expected targets.
There is a clear discrepancy between the concept of ‘temporariness’ in legal terms and its actual use by companies. Spanish law limits temporary contracts to jobs with a pre-determined time duration, but, in practice, most of the temporary contracts are fulfilling companies’ external and internal needs for flexibility. The role of temporariness must be defined within a general legal framework, providing both flexibility to enterprises and security to employees.
Although employment policies are currently at the top of the Spanish policy agenda, other structural reforms are also vital for ensuring the goal of more and better jobs for all. These include reforms in initial and lifelong learning, innovation support policies, and lowering the barriers to competition.
In conclusion, the experts argue that flexibility and security are the two essential elements of an effective employment policy, and that a reasonable balance between both elements is still required in Spain.
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (2005), Reform of the Spanish labour market, article.
