The CEOE has opened a direct communication channel with the Commission and the European Parliament and maintains an interlocution on the keys to the next labor reform, thus drawing the noise that exists around this issue within the Government.
It is a fluid and constant dialogue that the employer uses to move its main concerns and concerns to the two main European institutions.
These share with this organization where they want the labor market reform, as confirmed to this half-convenient sources of the relationship.
Conversations between both parties have intensified in the last month.
On the one hand, promoted by the meeting they had in Madrid at the beginning of October, the president of the entrepreneurs, Antonio Garamendi, and responsible at the European Commission of Next Generation, Céline Gauer, and, on the other hand, as a result of the conflict
Internal that exists in the coalition government by the opposing postures depoose Yunidas can.
“The meeting between Garamendi and Gauer gave a supportive to that communication, it was an important milestone because the Commission gave a public recognition to the role of the CEOE around the recovery plan and funds,” explains sources close to the employer.
The CEOE has a permanent delegation composed of five people and directed by Patricia Cirez, in that position since 2016 and who now channels communication on the ground with the Commission and Parliament.
Apart, the European Project Office of the CEOE in Madrid, which directs Luis Socías, usually speaks with European representatives in Spain and via email with Brussels.
Partners states that the relationship with the Commission has been maintained since the NEXT Generation program was articulated, but it admits that recently all the weight of the talks falls on the reforms and, in particular, in the labor reform.
“In this quarter, the focus is on the reforms because it is what the most weight has in the assessment of milestones that will do in December 2021 facing 10,000 million, right now is the priority,” he stands out.
If the Government does not have approved labor reform before the end of the year, for which consensus needs in social dialogue and support in the Congress of Deputies, you will not be able to justify that you have reached all the milestones necessary to receive the following
Payment of Brussels.
To date, he has only received the 9,000 million advances from the funds.
Thanks to this relationship, the CEOE has been able to verify that it coincides with the Commission in two key issues: any reform that is carried out in the labor market has to be done in accordance with social dialogue and, in addition, must be respectful with the recommendations
Specific by country that Brussels has been doing to Spain for years in the framework of the European semester, in which it asks you to cut the temporality and reduce youth unemployment.
“We agree with the importance given to the European semester and we align up with the Commission in that. In addition, Brussels gives great importance to social dialogue as there is agreement with social agents. We are in the same line: any decision on matters of
Structural reforms should be done on the basis of the agreement to also guarantee its sustainability over time, “says parties, who sees” reassuring “the commission’s message.
EU’s own Economy Commissioner, Paolo Gentiloni, stressed last Monday in Madrid that the future reform had to seek “the balance between the safety of workers and the flexibility of companies” and managed to tear Sánchez the promise that any
Change would be approved “As is done in Europe: according to social agents.”
This does not mean giving veto capacity to the CEOE, but it does condition the Executive to try to achieve the agreement.
Here the change that occurred last week will be key.
Until then, it was the minister of work, Yolanda Díaz, who led the table from a position very aligned with the unions;
But, from now on, it will be Moncloa who tutor those negotiations and at that negotiating table there will also be representatives of other ministries such as economics, social security, hacienda or education, all aligned with the PSOE.
Negotiation with social agents is complicated because both parties have very distant starting points: Trade unions are supporters of the repeal of the most harmful aspects of the 2012 work reform, while employers ask to advance in the flexibility of relationships
Labor.
One of the most sensitive issues of negotiation and in which it is more difficult for the employer to yield is the one related to the priority of the sectoral agreement on the company in a generalized manner, which a priori does not see the employer.
Different would be negotiating that priority only in some aspects – covered salaries and schedules – although this would be more difficult to accept for unions.
The proposal of the Ministry of Labor is also subject to conflict to end duality, which happens because any temporary contract that does not comply with the precepts to be automatically declared null instead of improceive;
as well as the change in regulation of substantial modification of working conditions.
Beyond these red lines, there are assignments that could do the CEOE in regard to the return to the ultraactivity of the agreements – which is already applied de facto in many cases – in the improvement of the conditions of subcontractors
-To apply the sectoral agreement of the activity executed in the subcontracted company – with regard to the training of workers or in the new dossions of temporary employment regulation (ERTE), under the umbrella of the new employment sustainability mechanism.
