Belgium/Agreement in the temporary employment sector over electronic employment contracts. On Tuesday 23 February, unions in the temporary employment sector announced the conclusion of a new sector agreement that does away with the rule allowing employers to draw up formal employment contracts within 48 hours of the service actually being provided. From 01 October 2016, temporary employees will have their contracts drawn up before they commence work. Unions have long criticized the 48-hour rule, which they claim led to abuses such as converting weekly contracts into daily contracts, or problems when the worker got ill or had an accident within the 48-hour period. The new agreement also allows for electronic signing of employment contracts, although unions are worried that this may lead to an increase in the number of successive daily contracts.
Spain/ Socialist and Centrist parties agree on a coalition program that includes employment contracts with rising levels of protection as well as a redundancy compensation fund. The PSOE socialist party (that came second in Spain’s December 2015 general election) and the newcomer centrist party C’s (Ciudadanos, which came in fourth, and was born, just like the new left wing radical Podemos party, of the country’s call for political renewal following widespread painful corruption) this week struck an agreement on a political program that will be put before the parliamentarians on 01 March 2016 in an attempt to take lead the government.
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