The general secretary of the CCOO, Unai Sordo, appreciates the model of social dialogue that exists in our country, especially advanced in the global context, because “it assumes that the Executive Branch, and in a way the Legislative Branch, agreed to submit to the negotiation of social agents, which is mandated by the constitution to do so, the clarification of laws.
Sordo made these statements at the Conference “Social dialogue. The challenges of the labor market”, organized by the College of Economists in Madrid, where Pepe Álvarez, general secretary of the UGT and the secretaries of CEOE and CEPYME, also participated . Antonio Garamendi and Gerardo Cuerva, respectively.
In the event, he emphasized the “democratic function” of the social consultation process and emphasized that laws should regulate reality and promoted dialogue between unions and business organizations to discuss the “temporary regulatory files.” in employment, not only the concept but the how. it is applied and how it responds to the concrete reality of each company.”
In this sense, he points out that “Spain in the 80s faced economic problems, asking for problems by using – I think badly – temporary hiring and firing as an ordinary formula to adjust companies.” to economic cycles and leading our country to a high rate of temporary employment in the coming decades.”
For the union leader, the main challenge of the Spanish labor model is to change that model, strengthen hiring and find alternative formulas for dismissal and he assured that what ERTES did is a litmus test that different things can be done, “It is true that with a large public investment to maintain jobs, but it emphasizes the almost immediate recovery of work when we come out of the pandemic that brought us to high hiring and adherence rates.”
For this reason, Sordo believes that the stability of hiring should have the consequence of changing inertia, “that companies seek to be profitable in ways other than adjusting wages, adjusting work , during transitions, digitalization, permanent training and where the stability of the company’s workforce is decisive for improving productivity.
SMI must be set by law at 60% of the average salary
The general secretary of the CCOO stated that the unions want to talk about productivity and discuss how to distribute business margins in the economic structure of our country. In this sense, he recalled that they proposed to link a part of the wage increase, within the framework of the agreement for employment and collective bargaining, to the evolution of productivity, as long as these productivity indices are determined relatively modest way. .purpose.
“While the data on the global economic margins, in terms of business income, is well developed, the distribution is very different, between those that set prices and market conditions, and those who should think about it, and it is appropriate, in these times where “Everyone is talking about Big Data and the accumulation of data, give it a spin,” he said.
For this reason, Sordo believes that companies in the future will not be profitable based on a salary that is less than 60% of the average salary and believes that the minimum interprofessional salary should be established definitively,” because we believe that this model “Low cost. “, that low salary model, favors the worst outsourcing practices, not as a productive specialist, but as a way to save costs and this is what needs to be reversed.
He also remembers that for the company to create work, the costs are assumed by society, not by the company, because in order to have an effective demand for goods and services, it will depend on how the income is distributed between in companies. “We have to break the old concept that saving costs for the company is how jobs are created.”
Regarding the incentive system, he stated that it must be changed because “it has become very distorted in the Spanish economy” and highlighted the weaknesses in the structure of our country, such as the loss of Industry or the lack of industrialization, which led to the stagnation -think of the economy as “peripheral” to compete with low-cost and highly insecure work. “It’s time to jump in to change the plot.”
A minimum severance payment must be established
Therefore, the leader of the union believes that it is necessary to introduce elements that discourage dismissal and announced that the union proposes a minimum payment, especially for very short seniority, because there is no deterrent effect on dismissal and raises two parallel issues: discourage dismissal and facilitate alternative formulas to them, “although it is a somewhat contradictory element between the union and business organizations.”
In addition, he emphasized that the speed of changes that occur in the economy also requires testing and anticipating the adaptation of jobs, so social agents “must collect these training requirements and design plans of training to transfer it to all companies and sectors in our country. .”
September’s unemployment numbers followed the usual pattern of other years
Finally, regarding the unemployment data that we now know, Sordo believes that September follows the usual behavior compared to other years because our work model is highly dependent on seasonal activities and therefore, September is typically a month of job turnover and ends with a net loss of jobs relative to the end of the summer.
“This is not a problem with the Workers’ Statute, this is a problem with the economic structure of Spain. The data is in the usual trend, and although we continue to have membership and employment records, in our opinion we should not be satisfied with these data. For Sordo, the goal is to further reduce the unemployment rate, especially with the deployment of European funds.
