Spanish labor unions and employers organizations are building consensus and could reach some form of agreement to put before the government. The fact that there is finally an executive ready to legislate while he is in office is forcing social agents to attend to business. Although not all do it the same, there are some clear differences between the UGT (devoted to their politics) and CCOO (more independent and open to free discourse).
Participants in the talks could advocate for an end to automatic extensions to collective bargaining except for cases when resorting to an arbitration. This was a rigid point for companies, considering that there was no pact to enforce the agreement and, therefore, no incentive to sign a subsequent agreement.
This has been one of the labor unions' strengths, so the fine print will have to be examined along with doubts created by a long and ineffective mediation process. Also on the table are discussions about linking salaries to productivity and cutting ties with the IPC. Introducing this principle into the labor culture is of utmost importance.
Also being debated are how to lower costs of layoffs for new contracts up to twenty days, a more reasonable figure that will burden companies far less and not give unproductive workers such an easy cushion to fall back on. With regard to the 400 euro so-called 'minijobs', perhaps these ought to be allied with a small unemployment benefit to help workers. Touch-ups are being applied for the better, but the two groups are far from the deregulation required for an efficient labor market.
