Government passes its labour reform in Congress

Government passes its labour reform in Congress
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By h.b. - Jul 29, 2010 - 7:03 PM

EFE archive

The abstention of the CiU and PNV allowed the Government to proceed

The Government managed to get its labour reform legislation through Congress on Thursday without support from any of the other parties, thanks to the abstention of the Catalan and Basque Nationalists, CiU and PNV.

The main plank of the legislation is giving employers the possibility to apply for reduced redundancy payments, 20 days pay per year worked, if they are in economic difficulties. The wording on that has been subject to several amendments and much debate, and has been passed as being when the company concerned ‘has current or forecast losses’, or when ‘a persistent reduction in the level of income could affect the company’s viability or capacity to maintain the volume of employment’. A judge will decide if the circumstances meet the requirement or not. Unions have voiced their anger at the move.

The amendment was passed by the Congress Working Commission and the Socialists have invited the CiU to present a further amendment in the next six months on collective negotiation.

Under the new regulations Social Security Inspectors can force a person who has taken sick leave back to work in four days, instead of the previous 14 days. This is part of a fight against the use of ‘sickies’, which has been highlighted recently by Air Traffic Controllers in Barcelona.

In addition companies will be able to sack workers with the lower redundancy payments when there has been poor attendance, even when justified, if the absenteeism reaches 20% of continuous working days over a 2 month period, or 25% of working days in four months as part of an 18 month period.

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