Unions meet with Minister of Labour to discuss new reforms

 

Germany yesterday praised the Spain's new labor reforms, with Chancellor Merkel going as far as commenting that it was an example that the rest of the EU should follow in tackling the economic crisis.

The changes, which reduce severance pay for permenant contracts from 45 days per year worked (up to a maximum of 42 months) to 33 days, with a limit in place of two years' salary.

However, the reform has also left a "loophole" in place whereby employers can sack staff members for "objective reasons", under which circumstances compensation would be reduced to just 20 days pay for each year worked - up to a maximum of one year.

Such "Objective reasons" can include things such as 3 consecutive quarters of falling sales. The reform also allows the possibility of companies cutting salaries in times of economic downturn.

However, representatives of the major unions met with the Minister for Labour, Fátima Báñez, yesterday to express their concerns. Ignacio Toxo of the CCOO criticised the reforms for making it easier for businesses to sack workers, which could only result in an increase in unemployment. His counterpart in the UGT, Candido Mendez, complained that the measures had been taken to appease the financial markets.

With unemployment rising by 2.7 Million since the begining of the economic crisis, the Unions fear that the new measures can only add to these numbers. As such a number of protests have been planned for the coming weeks, starting with one at the Puerto del Sol in Madrid on Sunday.

Neither Union has ruled out the possibility of calling for a general strike.