MADRID, 22 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The application priority of the regional agreements over the state and sectoral ones that Pedro Sánchez promised the PNV for his inauguration as president of the Government will come into force tomorrow after the reform of the unemployment benefit in the State was published this Wednesday in the Official State Gazette (BOE). that this measure is included.
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 and Vox.
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.
CCOO, UGT and the business organizations CEOE and Cepyme have expressed their rejection of this measure.
When it was included in the first subsidy reform, 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 reinforce 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 have described as “interference” in the functions of union and business organizations the fact that the application priority of regional agreements over sectoral ones has been included in the subsidy reform.
In a statement, CCOO regretted yesterday that the Ministry of Labor has opted to regulate this aspect “without counting on social agents.” “At CCOO we have been demanding the opening of social dialogue to address the articulation of collective bargaining between companies, sectors and territories and the prevalence of agreements, which can clearly be improved,” he stressed.
For its part, UGT warned yesterday that this matter is not “discussed, much less negotiated” with the unions, when it is an issue of “importance” and of an “essential” nature of the activity of the union organizations, therefore that should go through social dialogue.
“Respect for the social partners demanded that, without affecting the legislative capacity that our fundamental text reserves for the Congress of Deputies and the political parties that are part of it, a modification of the Workers’ Statute that affects the collective conventional structure was treated, debated and addressed in advance at the tripartite table of social dialogue,” defended UGT.
