Social partner involvement in the 2002 NAP

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This feature examines social partner involvement in Spain's 2002 National Action Plan (NAP) for employment. It is one of a set of similar features for all the EU Member States, written in response to a questionnaire.

This feature outlines how Spanish social partner organisations have been involved in Spain's 2002 National Action Plan (NAP) on employment. Under the European employment strategy, each year the EU Member States draw up NAPs in response to the annual Employment Guidelines.

Similar features on social partner involvement in the 2002 NAPs have been drawn up by the European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO) national centres in all the EU Member States, in response to a questionnaire. Details on the background to this exercise, and the questionnaire used, can be found at TN0206102F. Readers are advised to refer to the questionnaire in conjunction with this feature.

Procedural aspects

The process of consultation over the 2002 NAP followed the same pattern as in previous years. The government consulted with the regional authorities (autonomous communities) and the most representative social partner organisations: the Spanish Confederation of Employers' Organisations (Confederación Española de Organizaciones Empresariales, CEOE), the Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (Confederación Española de la Pequeña y Mediana Empresa, CEPYME), the Trade Union Confederation of Workers' Commissions (Comisiones Obreras, CC.OO) and the General Workers' Confederation (Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT). Most of the consultations were carried out in April 2002 and the NAP was approved at the end of the month. Despite the lack of time, both the employers' organisations and the trade unions expressed their assessments and proposals to the government.

With regard to the extent to which the social partners' views are represented in the NAP, their assessments and proposals are not formally laid down in the NAP, which is in no way a joint text and was not signed by the social partners. However, point D of the 2002 NAP (on developing a comprehensive partnership between Member States and social partners) was written directly by the most representative social partner organisations. In this section, the partners present an assessment of the social dialogue in Spain during the past five years, and particularly in 2001.

There is a consensus between the employers' organisations and the unions that the consultation procedure over the 2002 NAP was basically informative and failed to stimulate the active participation of the social partners in drawing up proposals and in the monitoring and application of employment policy. This view has been stated repeatedly over the past five years (ES0106246F, ES9907239F and ES9805152F) and is explicitly laid down at the start of point D of the 2002 NAP, drawn up by the social partners: 'We consider that the social partners should be given a clearer and more direct partnership in the NAP within the framework of the European employment strategy, both in terms of the application of the NAP and in monitoring the overall strategy and measures contained in it. We propose a plan of action which allows us to work on the priority strategies and objectives for each year, as outlined in the Guidelines, and on the measures which are included in the NAP according to these objectives. Our involvement should also include the monitoring of the measures implemented.'

Matters of policy content

Objective D of the 2002 Employment Guidelines calls for a 'comprehensive partnership with the social partners for the implementation, monitoring and follow-up of the employment strategy'. In the 2002 NAP, the most representative Spanish social partners make a relatively positive general evaluation of the social dialogue over the last five years. The main subjects dealt with (in some cases with the government, in others through bipartite negotiations) have been: reform of labour law (ES; changes in the public pension system (ES0201250N); improvement in vocational training and particularly in continuing training (ES0109202F); improvement in the application of the legislation on health and safety at work and risk prevention; and reform of the structure and organisation of collective bargaining (ES9706211F and ES0107150N). This has taken place, as the government points out in the 2002 NAP, in a framework of wage moderation.

However, it cannot be stated that a comprehensive partnership has been developed, nor that the implementation of the European employment strategy has been a significant stimulus for a greater degree of involvement of the social partners in employment policy at national level. Nevertheless, there has been some progress at a regional level, where at present there are 11 agreements on employment in force between the employers' organisations, the trade unions and the respective autonomous governments.

Differences of opinion between the trade unions on the one hand, and the employers' organisations and government on the other, have been accentuated in the course of 2002, as demonstrated by the general strike called on 20 June (see below).

With regard to the social partners' assessment of the government's overall employment policy, the employers' organisations largely agree with the government: the main aim is to maintain a stable macroeconomic framework that stimulates economic growth and employment; in this context one must provide continuity and further the structural reforms that are underway; and maintaining wage moderation and reaching a greater degree of flexibility in the labour market are two key elements.

The trade unions call for a change in the strategic orientation of the government's employment policy: making macroeconomic stability compatible with the development of the welfare state; combating precarious employment and reaching a better balance between flexibility and security; promoting personal services in order to favour the integration of women in the labour market; and intensifying policies aimed at groups who find it more difficult to gain access to employment.

Both the employers' organisations and the trade unions agree with the government on the need to increase investment in research and development and the 'information society', to improve education and vocational training systems and to improve the efficiency and quality of public employment services, though each group makes different assessments and proposals for each area.

With regard to the social partner's specific views on the 2002 NAP, the degree of agreement/disagreement with the content varies. Though the employers' organisations are critical of specific aspects, they largely support the government's employment policy. The unions, on the other hand, consider that there should be a strategic reorientation of the employment policy and totally reject some of the proposals laid down in the 2002 NAP, which the government developed and passed unilaterally in May.

Some of the criticisms that CEOE-CEPYME made of the 2001 NAP were resolved in the 2002 NAP: a revision of the regulations on part-time contracts to achieve greater flexibility and a greater connection between passive and active employment policies, in the line of 'workfare'. Furthermore, the labour reform approved by the government in May 2002 (ES0206204N) includes some reduction in the cost of dismissal, a traditional demand of employers with a view to obtaining greater flexibility. The parts of the 2002 NAP criticised by the employers include the lack of a significant general reduction in employers' social security contributions, which in the opinion of the employers' organisations hinder job creation.

The aspects of the 2002 NAP criticised by CC.OO and UGT are the same as those criticised in the 2001 NAP, because in their opinion there has been no significant progress. These include: improving the quality of work, and in particular combating fraud in temporary recruitment and the high industrial accident rate (ES0202213F); fostering the reorganisation and reduction of working time; and reinforcing equal opportunities for men and women, with specific policies against pay discrimination and for the development of personal care services

Bargaining

The 2002 Employment Guidelines promote collective bargaining in the areas of:

• improving the quality of work and employment (in general);

• modernising work organisation (guideline 13);

• lifelong learning in the context of competence and skill development in enterprises (guideline 15);

• 'active ageing' (guideline 3);

• strengthening equal opportunities for men and women (tackling the gender pay gap, desegregating the labour market, reconciling work and family/private life etc) (guidelines 16,17 and 18); and

• social integration by way of better access to the labour market for groups and individuals at risk or at a disadvantage, such as people from ethnic minorities, migrant workers, long-term unemployed people and people with disabilities (guideline 7).

In December 2001 the most representative employers' organisations and trade unions signed an 'agreement for collective bargaining 2002' (Acuerdo para la Negociación Colectiva 2002, ANC 2002), (ES0201207F). This agreement is of great importance because it is the first time since 1984 that the social partners have formally and jointly agreed on a reference level for pay increases and on general criteria for collective bargaining. The agreement reinforces the prevailing wage moderation and establishes significant guidelines for lower-level bargaining in several areas of relevance to the Employment Guidelines.

On improving the quality of work and employment, and modernising work organisation, the ANC 2002 includes guidelines on:

• maintaining and increasing employment, fostering employment stability and helping to avoid traumatic workforce adjustments, giving greater importance to collective agreements in this area, encouraging the proper use of the different types of employment contract, and achieving a balance between flexibility and security;

• encouraging collective agreements to adopt criteria for the management of working time in order to contribute to a better evolution of employment and a greater degree of reconciliation between the needs of workers and those of companies;

• reducing the industrial accident rate and improving the treatment of health and safety at work in collective agreement; and

• creating sectoral observatories on employment and competitiveness at national level.

On gender policy, the ANC 2002 recommends fostering equal opportunities and helping to eliminate gender discrimination in employment and occupation. Though collective agreements do not tend to contain formal differences in terms of gender, it is recommended that the lower-level social partners promote actions aimed at eliminating pay discrimination and promoting equal opportunities for men and women in employment and recruitment.

Commentary

The process of drawing up, consulting on and approving the NAP was affected in 2002 by the fact that the government's reform of the unemployment insurance system and the Basic Employment Law were being negotiated at the same time (ES0206204N). The 2002 NAP anticipated some of the general elements of this reform, but the disagreements in this area were already obvious. The trade unions rejected the proposed link between receiving unemployment benefit and willingness to accept job offers: in their opinion, this measure is aimed at cutting public expenditure and forcing wages down by introducing discretionary powers and reducing social rights. The reform also includes other aspects, such as reducing the cost of dismissal by eliminating 'interim pay' (while awaiting the outcome of an unfair dismissal case), which the trade unions found to be unacceptable. The differences were not resolved in May, which ended with the calling of a general strike by the trade unions on 20 June, and the immediate approval and application of the reform by the government. This was the first 24-hour general strike since 14 December 1988 and the first general strike in the period of government by the conservative People's Party (Partido Popular, PP). (Maria Caprile, CIREM Foundation)