Spain: socialist government places a draft reform of the rightwing government’s 2012 labor law changes back on the negotiation table (briefly)

Socialist Labor Minister Magdalena Valerio has submitted for review by the social partners a draft reform of the labor law that will seek to row back on two key measures of the latest labor law reforms (c.f. article N°120462) and re-establish both sector agreement precedence vis-à-vis company agreements and indefinite extensions to collective agreements that have reached their expiry dates (ultraactividad) instead of the currently applicable 12 month extension. The first element aims to restaure the sector agreements so that they take precedence over company agreements and to restrict the possibility for company agreements to both derogate from sector-set recommendations on salaries and working time and unilaterally modify employee-working conditions. These 2012 reform-based measures have been seen as deleterious for salary conditions across the country. Secondly, restoring indefinite extensions to collective agreements that have reached expiry aims to tackle the legal situation that systematically, agreement-by-agreement, leads to deteriorating working conditions. A third point addresses regulations over recourse to sub-contracting. It intends that sub-contractor workers, when carrying out the same work as employees within principal companies “will benefit from the same essential working and employment conditions as those employed in the principal company.” The principal company should be tasked with monitoring issues including salaries, working time, hiring conditions, maternity leave conditions, and social security system worker membership. This measure aims to combat a recently developed practice that over some years has seen personnel being transferred ‘out’ to multiservice companies operating with less generous collective agreements (c.f. article No. 9873).