Anti-crisis measures and the social situation

Abstract

FOCUS □ AUSTERITY ANDTRADEUNIONRIGHTSINEUROPE Anti-crisis measures and the social situation I proposed, legislation social relations, system reforms' bargaining 'structural collective to In-depth Spanish security relating labour were and the of 'structural reforms'of Spanish legislationwere proposed, relating to labour relations,the social security systemand collective bargaining ANTONIO BAYLOS IsProfessor of Labour and Social Security Law and Francisco Trillo Is Associate Professor of Labour and Social Security Law atthe University of CastJIIa-La Mancha. Two efforts period, periods to the tackle fundamental can the be crisis. identified concern During guiding in the Spain's first the efforts to tacklethe crisis.Duringthe first period, thefundamental concern guiding the legislativeresponse was to tackle the acute employment crisis resulting from thewidespread losses of jobs, witha particular impacton the construction sectorand on sectors dependent on therealestatesector. Socialagreement, including wage restraint, theextension ofsocialprotection to unemployment situations and incentives for stableemployment contracts were thefocusof publicauthorities' actionfrom 2009toMay2010. This powerful tendencyreachedits peak in September 2011,whenArticle 135oftheconstitutionaltextwas reformed to imposetheprinciple ofbringing publicauthorities' spending intoline withthepublicdebtlimit laiddownintheTreaty on theFunctioning oftheEuropeanUnion. According totheEuropean Commission andthe institutions regulating thefinancial markets, suchas theECBandtheIMF,economic measures aimedat reducing publicdeficit shouldbe accompanied by government actionto imposein-depth 'structural reforms' ofSpanish legislation, whichmeant carryingouta seriesofreforms relating to labourrelations , thesocialsecurity system andcollective bargaining , withtheexpressaimof creating and/or maintaining jobs. In otherwords,while State macroeconomic actionhastendedtowards reducingpublicdeficit , efforts to maintain and create jobshavebeenrestricted torevising theregulation oflabourrelations and socialprotection systems. Two mainlinesofaction havetherefore emerged. Thefirst relates tothe'inevitable' nature ofausterity measures andpublicdeficit reduction as the onlyway to exitthecrisisand to achieveeconomic recovery.The politicaland economic debate has therefore moved away fromissues suchas changing theproduction modeland the reforms needed in thefieldof businesswitha view to strengthening economicactivity, which over recentdecades has been almostentirely based on therealestatesector, witha spiralof speculation and rising pricesinresidential property . Absolving economicand businessactorsof theirresponsibilities in thisway, throughthe implementation of policies to reduce public spending, has recently been criticised as having depressive effects on theso-calledrealeconomy. The second line of action,whichreflects the first, isclosely related tothereforms carried outin labourrelations, ledbythearguable principle that jobscan onlybe created ormaintained byreducing legal and politicalemployment guarantees andreducing averagepaystandards andworking conditions, settingjob creationagainstrobust employment rights. Asan early result ofthiscombination of macroeconomic and microeconomic policies,Spainhas now takena hugestepbackwardsinterms ofthedistribution ofwealthand a decreasing of collective unionrights, directly related tothesituation ofprogressive unemployment ,thereduction in social spendingand the contraction ofpublicservices, whenbetween the 1980sand 2008,Spainhad reducedthatgap by morethanthecountries oftheOECD. 'Structural'reformsoflegal origin regardingemploymentrelations In generalterms, thisnon-linear reform process can be characterised bytheaforementioned tendencyto oppose job creationand theemploymentrights standardsin forcein the Spanish State.Itis notrelatedto theEuropeanobjective of 'flexicurity' since,takento itsfullest extent, maximum'flexibility' would correspondto an increase in 'security', somethingwhich runs counter totheideaofrestricting publicspending. Of the 'structural reforms' of labourrelations advocatedby the EuropeanUnion,we wouldstress theareasinwhichtherehas been noticeable change: contracts, internal flexibility andredundancy foreconomic,technical, organisationaland productive reasons.The content of thesereforms is analysedbelow. A) Contracts: Interms ofcontracts, thereforms introduced over thelasttwoyearsfollowed an intense debateon one of the peculiarities of the Spanishlabour market: thehighrateoftemporary employment: 34.8percent in2006. Law35/2010 attempted toimprove thewording oftheexisting clauseonsuccessive temporary contracts witha particular worker, taking accountof contracts with a particular worker within a particulartimeperiod .Hence,'Employees whoarehired formorethan24 months on a temporary basis within a 30 month-period, withor without interruption , withtwo or moretemporary contracts, directly or through temporary employment agencies ,inthesameordifferent position ofthesame Company orgroupofcompanies, shouldbe hired foran indefinite term [...]'. However, contrary to this, Article 5 ofRD-Law10/2011, of26August, on urgent measures to promote theemployment of youngpeople,on promoting employment stability and on maintaining thevocational retraining programme forpeople no longereligible forunemployment benefit, provides forthetemporary suspensionofthesemeasures to prevent thefraudulentuse of successivetemporary contracts fora periodoftwoyears (confirmed byRDL3/2012). However,the aforementioned RDL 10/2011 and RDL 3/2012providesfora vocational training contract witha maximum reduction of the training element, low salaries(75 percent ofthe INTERNATIONAL union lights Page 8Volume 19Issue 22012 minimum wage)andexemption from socialsecurity contributions during theperiodof thecontracts . For two years,it is possibleto employ young peopleofbetween16and30withno professional qualifications inthisway. B) Internalflexibility: Law35/2010 differs from thetraditional interconfederal collective bargaining agreements in terms ofitsviewofwhereinternal flexibility shouldbe introduced - since1997.WhiletheInterconfederal agreements havetakentheviewthat thiskindof flexible regulation shouldtakeplace within the context ofsectoral collective bargaining, introducinga seriesofrulestogovern thewholeproductionindustry according to theinternal flexibility needsofthesector, Law35/2010 hasleft thedecisionon theintroduction of internal flexibility to...