Reproduzco,
por su interés, un fragmento del Informe del FMI sobre España, hecho público
ayer, en el que se valora positivamente la última reforma laboral. Como España
es un “buen alumno” del FMI habrá que leer con atención todo el documento para
saber qué más puede ocurrir en el próximo futuro en materia de relaciones
laborales,… salvo que la ciudadanía afectada puede oponerse a ello.
“36. The recent reform promises a
significant improvement in the functioning of the labor market. This
reform, enacted as a decree on February 2012, introduced measures that can importantly
reduce labor market duality, wage rigidity and firms’ internal inflexibility.
These should boost job creation over time by making wages more
responsive to economic conditions, allowing firms to agree wages and
working conditions according to their needs, and making firms more willing
to offer open-ended contracts and step up in-job training.
Most Spanish labor market academics
shared the view that this is a potentially major reform. The main elements of
the reform are:
Duality is reduced by lowering the dismissal costs of
permanent workers for unfair dismissals. More importantly, the reform eases and
clarifies the use of fair dismissals for firms in distress (those firms facing
current or prospective losses, or a persistent decline in sales). It also
reduces procedural costs and eliminates the need for prior administrative approval
for fair dismissals. The goal is to make fair dismissals the regular channel to
dismiss workers with permanent contracts in distressed firms, thus
significantly reducing dismissal costs.
Wage rigidity and firms’ internal inflexibility are
reduced by giving priority to firm level agreements over wider collective
agreements. The reform also allows distressed firms to change working
conditions, temporarily suspend contracts, and reduce working time. The goal is
to allow distressed firms to adjust wages and working time instead of
dismissing workers. In addition, the reform limits the automatic extension of
expired collective agreements to one year.
37. The reform also introduces more
targeted measures to foster employment and training, although some may have
potentially limited effectiveness. The reform includes a number of measures aimed at
fostering job creation for the youth and long-term unemployed, and in-job
training. However, some of these measures are based on subsidies and tax
breaks, which have been used in the past with little success. The measures that
do seem more likely to foster job creation are the authorization for temporary
employment agencies to act as private placement agencies, and the enhanced
flexibility of part-time work and telework.
38. The reform’s success hinges on its
implementation and further strengthening labor policies should be considered. Previous
reforms have not been successful, largely as the changes were marginal
and not widely used, in part, due to interpretation by the courts. The reform
could also be strengthened, for example, by reducing the difference
between protection for open-ended and temporary contracts to make the
labor market more inclusive and by eliminating the practice of indexation
and “ultra-activity”. The new flexibility options could also be better
communicated to firms. And if sufficient firm-level flexibility is not quickly
forthcoming (which should be transparently monitored), policymakers
should prepare contingency plans, for example, by moving to an opt-in system
for collective bargaining. The planned review of active employment policies is
welcome and should carefully consider whether the unemployed are being
given sufficient training and incentive to secure employment and whether the use
of subsidies (that has proven inefficient and expensive in the past) offers the
best alternative. Recent measures on fighting fraud, including on unemployment
benefits, should also contribute to decreasing the size of the grey economy and
strengthening labor policies".
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