“Unfair”, “the worst of politics” or “he only knows how to represent the interests of a party” are just some of the qualifiers that CCOO and UGT They have dedicated this Monday to the president of Foment de Treball, Josep Sanchez Llibre, after the breakdown of the negotiations to renew the agreement of agreements in Catalonia. The unions have warned: there has not been an Interprofessional Agreement of Cataunya (AIC), there will be a conflict. And now they threaten to escalate the conflict in the dozens of tables where they have blocked agreements and that affect more than 360,000 workers distributed throughout the four Catalan provinces.
The top leaders of the centrals have not hidden their anger, both in substance and in form, at the outcome of more than two years of meetings. “[Sánchez Llibre] he prefers to act as a lobi and organize events and celebrations rather than act as an employer& rdquor;, the general secretary of the UGT of Catalonia has snapped at him, Camil Ros. “[Sus asociados] they must think that whoever represents the worst in politics is not good for representing their interests& rdquor;, has affirmed his CCOO counterpart, javier pacheco.
Last Thursday the union leaders received a ‘whatsapp’ in which the president of Foment informed them that, after deliberating internally with his people, he could not sign the preliminary agreement that the four most representative social agents in Catalonia had reached. The main reason is the refusal to give legal validity to the application priority of the regional agreements on state or provincial ones.
And despite the fact that the pre-agreement contemplated an emergency clause according to which if one of the four organizations did not want to, the prevalence did not apply in that agreement, Foment has declined to sign the agreement.
The Catalan concertation is very touched and fails, for the moment, in its attempt to make a leap in quality and reinforce the autonomy of collective bargaining. And it is that the failed AIC intended, for the first time in its history, to give legal obligation to part of its contents. Especially those linked, in addition to regional agreements, with the digitization in companies, committing that any technological innovation that could generate a disruption in the workplace would have to be agreed upon. Also guidelines to promote the digital disconnection in companies and the telecommuting.
Problem with the employer unit
The general secretaries of the centrals have charged especially against Foment, but they have also distributed blame towards the other Catalan employers, pimec. “The bad relations between the employers have caused the negotiations to break down,” Ros pointed out. “You have to come home fighting,” added Pacheco.
And it is that the disputes and competition between both business organizations has been complicating, for months, labor relations in Catalonia. What has become evident in the negotiation of the collective agreement of offices and offices of the province of Barcelona, one of the most important specifications in the service sector and which marks the salary of more than 120,000 people. There, Foment has reached an agreement in principle with the unions that Pimec declines to sign and the salary renewal has been stuck for more than a year.
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Another field where employer differences have been evident was the metal agreement in the province of Barcelona, which affects more than 160,000 people. There Foment signed a salary increase of at least 12% until 2024, plus an extra based on inflation. And Pimec replied by issuing a statement warning that said increase endangered 24,000 jobs. “We deeply regret that Foment del Treball has not wanted to reinforce the Catalan labor relations framework,” was the response given by the employers’ association of SMEs to Foment’s rejection of the AIC negotiation.
Damaged personal trust among the top leaders of the four organizations, any possibility of resuming negotiations for a new AIC remains fallow until at least next year.