The 5 keys to the labor reform that will enter into force in 2022

The government has managed to agree unanimously with employers and unions on its labor reform, which will bury part of the legacy left by Mariano Rajoy since 2012. The document agreed upon at the social dialogue, and to which EL PERIÓDICO has had access, consists of 47 pages that reformulate labor relations in matters such as temporality, subcontracting, new forms or collective bargaining; among others. However, there are several elements of the PP rule that endure. The measures have been agreed with the CEOE, CCOO Y UGT and now they must go, first, through the Minister council and, second, by the Congress of Deputies. That is, they will not take effect effectively until next year. These are the main keys to the reform.

One of the most ambitious goals of the coalition’s labor reform is to tackle the high rates of temporality existing in Spain. To do this, it reorders and simplifies the contracting modalities. The indefinite contract is still the, in theory, ordinary and employers must justify more explicitly when they want to make a temporary. An important novelty is that all temporary contracts will become fixed if they exceed the maximum duration limit established by law. And the penalties are increased in the event that the Labor Inspection detects fraud: the highest go from 7,500 euros to 10.000 euros.

There will be three types of temporary contracts:

  • The first and shortest is the one to attend foreseeable spikes in activity and not reproducible during the year. It will last a maximum of 90 days and cannot be extended beyond that. The Government gives the companies scope to hire all the temporary workers that it needs under this formula and will have to inform the workers’ representatives of this. The clearest example would be that of a bar with two employees that hires four more waiters for a week or a month to attend the town’s festivities. In this case, if one of these waiters continued working for more than 90 days, the employer would have the obligation to do it permanently.
  • The second type of contract is the one intended to cover unforeseen spikes of activity. This will have a maximum duration of six months or one year (if agreed by agreement). Employers may extend it if the need justifies it, but the same person may not accumulate more than 18 months with a contract of this type during a period of 24 months.
  • And the third type will be for cover casualties due to temporary disability or leave with reservation. For the same, the company must establish in the temporary contract the name of the person replaced and the cause of the replacement.

The reform ends with work and service contracts, which represent 38% of the contracts currently signed. For those people who are currently with a contract of this type, it will remain in force until its completion.

The agreed labor reform aims to make the Outsourcing a way for companies to specialize, not to save wages. The final document specifies that “the collective agreement applicable to contractors and subcontractors will be that of the sector of the activity carried out in the contract or subcontract”. In other words, if SEAT hires a company to clean it, those workers will be paid according to the cleaning agreement.

At this point the unions gain coverage, since before the subcontracted company could apply its own agreement below the sector. But not as much coverage as they wanted, since the centrals were looking for the sector agreement to be applied.

The changes in the Government will reinforce the subsidiary responsibility of the contractors with respect to the subcontractors. The first must respond to the obligations with the Social Security of the second for a period of three years. Although in relation to salaries, the responsibility will only be for one year.

The main victory that unions will be able to achieve after a decade insisting is the recovery of the “balances” in collective bargaining. Coalition labor reform returns to ultraactive indefinite already prevalence of the sectoral agreement on that of the company, two elements that are relocated in practically the same drafting prior to the PP.

  • Ultraactivity is the guarantee that a collective agreement does not decline when its validity has expired and one of the parties denounces it. In the words of a trade unionist, the absence of ultra-activity is to live for rent and that once the rental contract ends, the landlord ejects the tenant from the house and then they agree on the conditions for the renewal of the rent. With the recovered ultra-activity, the tenant negotiates from his home and without the threat of eviction. A novelty introduced by the reform is that the parties must submit to mediation from the first year of the non-renewed agreement.
  • The prevalence of the sectoral agreement over that of the company means that a company can only create its own agreement if it is to improve what has already been agreed in the sector. That is, Seat can create its own agreement to pay its employees better than what the automotive agreement stipulates, but not to pay them worse. A group that clearly benefited from this measure are the hotel room maids, who were hired through multi-service companies and thus paid the minimum wage. Now they will have to pay them either the hospitality agreement or the cleaning agreement, with better salaries.

Related news

The new law creates the call ‘RED Flexibility and Employment Stabilization Mechanism‘, with incentives for companies that are forced to adopt measures to reduce working hours or suspension of employment contracts as a result of an economic recession or permanent changes in a specific sector.

Thus, the new sections of the RED Mechanism may be of a cyclic (for a maximum period of one year) or of character structural (for a maximum of one year, extendable to two). In either of the two modalities, the RED Mechanism must be activated in each case by decision of the Council of Ministers.

  • Both in the new sections of the RED Mechanism, as well as in the existing ones (for economic, organizational or production reasons) or in those of overwhelming force, the company will be able to access different levels of bonuses in the contributions to the Social Security of the workers. To do this, you will have to meet one condition: maintenance of employment during six months after ending erte. In addition, in the classic sectors and in the sectorial sectors of the RED Mechanism, employers will only be able to benefit from a 20% discount in social contributions if they provide training to workers.
  • The training, however, will not be mandatory to access 90% bonuses in the event of death due to force majeure. Nor is training in the cyclical sections of the RED Mechanism mandatory. For these three levels of social bonus are established: 60% the first four months; 30% for the next four and 20% for the last four until the end of the year. In one way or another, companies that provide training to their workers in ertes will have more funding with the new law.
  • For its part, the bill establishes the benefits to which erte workers will be entitled, which will revolve around 70% of the regulatory base up to a maximum of 2.25 times the multiple income indicator (Iprem). What is currently equivalent to 1,271 gross euros per month.

The legal text also establishes the creation of the ‘RED Fund for Employment Sustainability’, attached to the Ministry of Labor, which will aim to finance the new cyclical and sectoral sectors in terms of benefits and exemptions to companies, including costs deformation. This Fund will be financed with surplus unemployment benefits, with contributions from the General State Budgets and with European funds.

The consensus established between the Government, the employers and the unions also affects the training contracts. These intend to reconcile employment and learning, with minimal labor coverage.

  • The training contract is limited to people under 30 years of age and the apprentice must be assigned two tutors, one from the company and the other from the training entity.
  • The minimum duration of the contract will be three months and the maximum two years. The effective working time may not exceed 65% of the working day during the first year and 85% during the second. And the salary can never be below the SMI.
  • You must be taking a training course directly linked to the activity of the contracted company and thus avoid accumulating courses that have nothing to do with the trade and only serve to perpetuate the training contract.

Reference-www.elperiodico.com

Leave a Comment