MADRID, 21 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
In the Royal Decree-Law that reforms the unemployment benefit, the Government has approved the application priority of the regional agreements over the state and sectoral ones that Pedro Sánchez promised to the PNV in the investiture agreement with this formation, as confirmed by the second vice president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, at the press conference after the Council of Ministers.
The prevalence of regional agreements was agreed in the investiture pact of the PNV and the PSOE of December 2023 and was in force until the first unemployment benefit reform that included it fell on January 10, as it could not be validated in Congress for the votes against Podemos, PP, Vox and UPN.
The prevalence of regional agreements over sectoral and state agreements will be conditional on their application being more favorable for workers than that established in state agreements or agreements and on obtaining the support of the majorities required to constitute the negotiating commission.
Provincial collective agreements will have the same application priority when this is provided for in regional interprofessional agreements and whenever their regulation is more favorable for workers than that established in state agreements.
However, non-negotiable matters will be considered in both areas, the regional and provincial levels, the trial period, the contracting modalities, the professional classification, the maximum annual working day, the disciplinary regime, the minimum standards regarding prevention. of occupational risks and geographical mobility.
The prevalence of regional agreements over sectoral agreements was a measure that was excluded from the 2021 labor reform, but was included in the agreement that the nationalists reached with the PSOE for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez.
Díaz has stressed that it is not something new that the prevalence of autonomous agreements over sectors has been included in the subsidy reform because it already appeared as such in the reform that overturned Congress.
Likewise, he has defended that the prevalence of autonomous agreements was contemplated in labor legislation since 1994, and has indicated that “the spirit” of the modification made is that of labor reform, since only the collective agreement of a regional nature or of any nature, “provided that its formulations are more favorable for the worker.”
At the time, when the first unemployment benefit reform was approved, the one that overthrew Congress, CCOO, UGT and business organizations expressed their rejection of this measure.
The employers’ associations issued a harsh statement warning that, in practice, this measure “attacks market unity at the national level” and goes in the opposite direction to the efforts that, at the European level, are being developed to strengthen market unity. as a fundamental element of competitiveness.
“The materialization of this political agreement will mean a deterioration in social cohesion and Spanish competitiveness,” CEOE and Cepyme warned, stating that it was agreed not to include this regulatory change in the latest labor reform agreed with the Government in the social dialogue and included as a necessary milestone for receiving European funds.
“Therefore, the Government, once the EU mandate of having a labor reform agreed with unions and business organizations has been fulfilled, has radically skipped the agreements reached in social dialogue. This demonstrates a lack of loyalty and trust essential for social dialogue”, the employers’ associations then alleged.
For their part, CCOO and UGT do not like this measure committed to the PNV and that, initially, when it was approved in the first subsidy reform, it was included by surprise in the text of the decree.
Both UGT and CCOO indicated at the time that the structure of collective bargaining has to be addressed within the framework of social dialogue and it is a modification that was not taken into account within the scope of the labor reform.
