The Government approves the labor reform: companies will have three months to adapt temporary contracts

The Government has approved the royal decree law of the labor reform that will be published at the end this Thursday in the Official State Gazette (BOE). In this way, the reform will enter into force on Thursday, except for the temporary measures, which will be between three and six months, thus giving this period to companies to adapt.

The Second Vice President of the Government and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, detailed in the press conference after the Council of Ministers that companies will have access to three months to adapt to the new scheme of temporary contracts and six in the case of contracts for works and services, a modality that disappears with the new regulations.

The reform agreed by the Executive and the social agents touches on various aspects of the Workers’ Statute, such as hiring and collective bargaining, and has among its main objectives the reduction of precariousness and temporary employment in Spain, as highlighted by Yolanda Díaz.

“This reform turns the page to precariousness in Spain. There are young people and women who have never known an employment contract that is not garbage in their lives”

“We are going to have a labor framework that is going to change the lives of the people in our country (…) This reform turns the page on precariousness in Spain. There are young people and women who have never known an employment contract in their lives that not be garbage. Now they will stop having precarious lives, “said Díaz, who has emphasized that this labor reform” is the first in more than 40 years that recovers rights instead of cutting them. “

For this reason, the vice president, who has thanked the social agents for their work throughout these months to achieve this reform, has insisted that today “is not just any day”, but “one of the most important days of the Government of Spain and this legislature “.

The norm establishes that the ordinary employment contract will be indefinite and that only temporary contracts may be made with highly assessed causes: due to production circumstances and by substitution of another worker with a job reservation. The first may only be arranged for occasional unforeseeable increases in production or fluctuations in demand, for a maximum period of six months, extendable to twelve if so established by the sectorial collective agreement of the moment.

This cause may be used in foreseeable situations, such as Christmas or agricultural campaigns, for a maximum period of 90 non-consecutive days a year. In this way, Díaz stressed, the contract for work or service will be expelled from the labor legislation, which allowed temporary periods that sometimes reached four years.

Fines of up to 10,000 euros for irregular hiring

The vice president has also explained that, with this rule, the construction work contract will become indefinite and when the work tasks for which a worker has been hired are completed, the company will have to relocate him to another work or train him and re-qualify him at the expense of the company, through the Construction Labor Foundation.

The sectors that seasonally resort to temporary contracts will have to use the fixed-discontinuous contract from the entry into force of the new regulation of contracts, which will give rise to the same rights as the rest of permanent contracts, including compensation for dismissal, higher than that of temporary contracts. Likewise, the norm will reduce to 18 months in a period of 24 months the term of chaining of contracts to acquire the condition of indefinite worker, compared to 24 months in a period of 30 months currently in force.

Failure to comply with the rules that regulate temporary hiring will lead to the worker being considered indefinite. In fact, the sanctions contemplated in the Law of Infractions and Social Order (LISOS) for the fraudulent use of temporary contracts are raised from a maximum of 8,000 euros to a maximum of 10,000 euros per violation. These fines will be applied for each fraudulent situation and not for each company, as was done until now.

In addition, the reform will penalize companies that engage in abusive rotation of temporary contracts with a fixed rate, as explained by the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations, José Luis Escrivá, also present at the press conference.

The decree includes the repeal of the sixteenth additional provision of the Workers’ Statute that allowed the possibility of undertaking dismissals for economic reasons in the field of Public Administrations.

Avoid layoffs

The decree will modify the 2012 labor reform to regain balance in collective bargaining, reinstating ‘full ultra-activity, so that collective agreements will be extended until they are replaced by new ones, without a time limit, compared to the term of one year set above.

In addition, the sector agreement will regain its prevalence over the company agreement. The latter may regulate the choice between payment or compensation for overtime; the schedule and distribution of working time; the adaptation of the professional classification and the family conciliation measures, but not the working day or salary. Contracts and subcontractors will be subject to the agreement of the sector of the activity carried out or that of the main company.

Likewise, the norm strengthens the temporary employment regulation files (ERTE) to avoid collective dismissals. In this way, ordinary labor legislation will include ERTEs that have been used massively during the pandemic, also with regard to contribution benefits linked to carrying out training actions and maintaining employment, as well as unemployment protection.

Rejection of the Government partners

However, the path does not look like a bed of roses. Yolanda Díaz has assured that the Government’s vocation is that the labor reform “remain as it is”, although she has made it clear that she will dialogue with the political forces as much as is necessary to attract their support.

“They have to understand that this rule has cost a lot, it is well thought out, much discussed, and the vocation is for it to remain as it is,” he said. He explained that even the commas are agreed in a text that the vice president has elevated to the category of “country agreement”, which he hopes will be understood by the parliamentary partners of the coalition government, to whom he will give all “dialogue, attention and the affection “that is necessary.

Díaz has assured that the parties that support the Government – “even the political forces with a single deputy” – have been informed of the content of the reform.

Asked expressly about the PNV’s request that the regional agreement prevail over the state one and about the perception of ERC and EH Bildu that the reform is insufficient, Díaz has preferred to maintain discretion and has insisted on appealing to dialogue.

And it is that, ERC and Bildu, budgetary partners of the coalition Government, have insisted on their rejection of the labor reform considering that it does not suppose a real repeal of the legislation of the Executive of the PP. “They sell smoke”, ERC spokesman Gabriel Rufián has summed up, accusing the Government of Pedro Sánchez of having dedicated “many hours” to speaking with the CEOE and Cepyme and “zero hours” in negotiating with their partners. “They have started the house with the roof,” he says.

In his opinion, “there is a lack” of things in that labor reform and “there is a lot of room for improvement”, which is why, for the moment, the thirteen ERC deputies are in “a quite clear ‘No'”. Bildu’s spokesperson, Mertxe Aizpurua, has also highlighted to journalists that the labor reform led by vice presidents Nadia Calviño and Yolanda Díaz will not have the support of their training because it does not respond to the needs of the workers.

In any case, if it is validated, Bildu will demand that it be processed in Congress as a bill to introduce changes because “a lot of things” are missing to fulfill the commitment to completely repeal the rules imposed by the PP.

“This reform is not historical, but it can be because it can put an end to the cut of so many years – he later affirmed in the plenary session of Congress -. We hope that in the parliamentary process the Government will have a constructive attitude, it is necessary to dialogue to fulfill the word given. , it seems good or bad to the employer “.

For his part, the deputy spokesman for Ciudadanos, Edmundo Bal, has declined to advance his vote but, in any case, has been convinced that in the end the Government will “kneel” before its partners to carry out the new legislation with them.

In declarations in Congress, Bal has reiterated that, of what is known about the labor reform, there are “good things” that his party shares, such as the signing of all social agents or the fight against temporary employment, but also includes measures that they do not like at all, such as the ultra-attractiveness or the preeminence of the sector’s agreements, even if only for salary purposes.

In his view, it is an “unambitious” reform and a “missed opportunity” to carry out more profound changes such as the so-called ‘Austrian backpack’. “Our opinion is quite unfavorable,” he commented, waiting to know the text of the decree law.