The parliamentary approval of the labor reform continues to be the most urgent challenge on the Government’s legislative agenda and for this reason, they confirm in the Ministry of Labor, they are multiplying contacts with the groups that allowed Sánchez to reach a majority for the inauguration. A dialogue in which the technical teams of each of the parties participate and sometimes Vice President Yolanda Díaz herself, they assure, and in which the Government has the good offices of the unions to try to push groups such as ERC, EH Bildu or PNV to validation. The strategy now, they entrust to EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA, a newspaper that belongs to this same group, Prensa Ibérica, sources of this negotiation, is to find how part of the demands of these forces can be incorporated without the agreement being processed as a bill, and for this they study how to include those claims in other normative developments: different laws, or regulations for the development of the norm itself.
The reason why it is tried to avoid at all costs that the reform is reopened in parliament is because this procedure can last for months, in which there can be many opportunities to “make a spectacular mess”, in the words of a senior leader union. “In this type of situation, no matter how hard it is to agree to amendments, in the end anything can always happen; it is an uncontrollable process,” he adds. The Government abounds in this idea, pointing out that the right can take advantage of the processing to short circuit its approval, “just as when the PP supported an amendment of Compromís in the Senate to force a new vote of the Budgets in Congress” at the end of last year, they point out. So the negotiation is going to focus on how to convert demands such as administrative authorizations of the ere, a more guaranteeing regulation on dismissal or a greater role of the regional agreements in realities that fit with the agreement reached by unions and employers and that they join to the legal system.
Work inspection
One of these formulas, they point out from the unions, could be to take advantage of the regulations that will have to be undertaken in the field of Labor Inspection in order to adapt it to the provisions of the reform in matters of erte or control of temporary employment for give more role to this supervisory institution in controlling the causality of dismissals, or in supervising employment regulation files. Some other regulation in process can also be used to introduce “surgical” changes in the matter of collective bargaining “in such a way that regional frameworks are enabled with concurrency rules that defend the prevalence of provincial agreements over state ones, except in matters reserved for them. last “, they add. The “hangers” from which to hang news are not going to be lacking, because -without counting on the rest of legislative production- the reform itself calls for future developments normative: for example, in its second additional provision it requires that six months after the approval of the norm (that is, in the summer of this year at the latest) the Government and social agents address the Statute of the Scholar, an ideal norm to incorporate some additional regulation.
The key to facing this negotiation successfully, these sources point out, is spend a little time so that the demands of the nationalists are definitively settled. “Since the approval of the labor reform we have seen ERC put the accent first on the regional agreements, then on the dismissal, and later on the administrative authorization to the ere,” they say in the Government; “We have to wait for the requests to be finalized.” The social agents agree: “there are still three weeks, an eternity with the current rhythms of politics, and the current climate – with maximalist requests – does not look good”, says a union leader; another remarks that the initiative belongs to the Executive: “the Government has to open the door somewhat, and the parliamentary partners will then have to decide whether to enter.”
Information to social agents
What they do believe is necessary from the social dialogue for the success of the negotiation is that the movements in politics are transmitted to unions and employers, so that they can examine them. It was publicly defended by Pepe Álvarez, Secretary General of the UGT, during his traditional analysis of the news at the beginning of the year: “those of us who have been negotiating have made a very well thought-out, hard-worked agreement, and therefore we do not think it necessary to introduce new elements. In any case, I ask that if there is any change call us so that it has the support of business and union organizations, “he assured this Wednesday.
Álvarez in fact demands that the groups validate the current reform and that they join the unions to demand a new dialogue table in which they address the matters that they consider pending, such as those related to dismissal; a possibility – that of a second round of labor reform – viewed with skepticism by sources of the negotiation: “the groups, which now have the upper hand, are not going to renounce their current influence for a future table.” Unai Sordo, the CCOO leader, does not propose a new formal table but he does continue with the demands to achieve more changes: “[la reforma laboral] It is not the end of the story. When it is validated – as I hope it will happen – there will still be two years in the legislature. Of course, we do not rule out new modifications in the Workers’ Statute, nobody has said that this is the last negotiation of labor regulation. But let’s do things in order: let’s validate the reform first, “he asserted.