The labor counter-reform is postponed pending the conclusion of an agreement with the CEOE

The draft Royal Decree-Law on urgent measures of the Social Order that will be approved by the Council of Ministers on Friday will not include the labor counter-reform as the unions intended, even though the Government had concluded a preliminary agreement with them to modify three aspects of the reform approved by the Rajoy government, as explained by sources familiar with the negotiation of the Economist. These same sources acknowledge that the Executive does not want to close an agreement without having the consensus of the CEOE and Cepyme.

However, sources from the Ministry of Labor clarify that the text was never expected to include the labor reform and clarify that the text that is going to be approved this Friday in the Council of Ministers is limited to aspects related to Social Security. In addition, they assure that the text is not yet closed and that it could undergo changes on the same Friday morning.

These three measures of the labor reform included the return to the prevalence of the sectoral agreement over the company, the recovery of the ultraactivity of the agreements in the absence of agreement in the negotiation of a new agreement and the reforms of Article 42 of the Statute of the Workers (ET) on the subrogation of functions in subcontracted companies.

The sources consulted explain that the decision not to include in the Royal Decree-Law the reform of the Workers’ Statute has departed from the Ministry of Economy, which has generated great anger in the Ministry led by Magdalena Valerio, as well as in the unions . A few weeks ago, UGT and CCOO unilaterally announced that they had concluded an agreement with the government to approve the reform of the ET, with harsh criticism from the CEOE president, Antonio Garamendi, who considered unacceptable a reform in which exclude entrepreneurs.

In this way, the package of social measures that the Executive will present tomorrow, and that is still susceptible to be modified as it was drafted on December 19, will include the increase in pensions for 2019, the increase in the maximum contributions of the general scheme by 7% and the minimum base of self-employed workers by 1.25%, in addition to the elimination of the bonus in the contribution for occupational contingencies to companies due to low work-related accidents and the 40% increase in the company’s Social Security for contingencies common to contracts lasting 5 or less days.

The same sources point out that although it does not appear in the negotiated text with the social agents, it could be included at the last moment the entrepreneurs contract and the PAE Prepara subsidy whose force ends on January 4, and that will finally continue until it has a subsidy reform. In addition, sources say that the salary supplement in the training contracts will fall out of the text.