The national government has given labor unions and employers' organizations until January 13 to come to an agreement on labor reform. Still, UGT and CCOO argue that there is nothing wrong with a regulatory structure that generated 5 million jobs during the bonanza.
For this reason they are denying any significant changes with respect to the major issues at hand: costs of layoffs, company agreements about salaries and working hours, and internal mobility.
They are only conceding to salary modifications for temporary workers, but making no efforts to make sure earnings are connected to productivity. But what kind of concession is this? Does anyone really ask for higher salary despite their falling productivity? At this point Minister of Labor Fátima Báñez is at the helm and will have to act quickly and with confidence.
The problem is that the Spanish government is giving more importance to agreements about internal mobility and layoff costs. That would be a grave error. There will never be a sincere agreement from companies while people are being protected by their expensive severance packages and know that before they fire temporary workers.
They will always prefer to cut payroll instead of modifying salaries and labor conditions, and that is exactly what caused labor adjustments that change hours worked and not salary earned. Báñez will have to act with a swift iron fist and consider reducing the costs of layoffs substantially while clarifying what causes are justified so that either case can be backed by law.