New regional pacts for employment in Spain

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Towards the end of 1998, regional governments and social partners signed two new pacts for employment in the Spanish autonomous communities of Aragon and Cantabria.

Two new pacts for employment were signed towards the end of 1998 in the autonomous communities of Aragon and Cantabria. Both agreements cover 1999, and the organisations involved are the respective regional governments, the UGT and CC.OO trade union confederations and employers' associations - CREA and CEPYME in Aragon and CEOE-CEPYME in Cantabria.

These agreements are more limited in duration and resources than other regional pacts reached in 1998 (ES9811188F), such as those in Catalonia (ES9805154F) and Galicia (ES9810184F). However, in both Aragon and Cantabria the pacts contain some new elements that confirm the growing dynamism of social dialogue and concertation at a regional level in Spain. These are as follows.

• Support for in-company bargaining for secure job creation through the reorganisation and reduction of working time. In both Aragon and Cantabria, resources have been allocated for this purpose. The amounts are relatively small, but this marks the beginning of a type of action that may gain importance over the next few years.

• Support for measures governing occupational risk prevention and training. Both pacts include initiatives that commit the regional administration to risk prevention for the first time.

• New sources of employment. In Aragon, it has been agreed to carry out a study on this topic with a commitment to subsequent action.

• Social policy. In Cantabria, the pact includes wider social policy measures, an area that is not usually dealt with in this type of pact. These consist of agreements on a minimum incomes programme, and other initiatives such as subsidised rents for people on low incomes or the creation of safe houses for victims of domestic violence.

• Greater participation of the social partners in public agencies. In Aragon an agreement has been reached on the public employment service model to be followed in order to ensure the participation of the social partners in the management bodies. In Cantabria, the participation of the social partners has been approved in the Regional Development Company of Cantabria (Sociedad de Desarrollo Regional de Cantabria), the main instrument of economic and industrial policy in the region.