The Executive Committee of the CEOE employers’ association has given the go-ahead to the “general lines of the proposal” for labor reform, as reported by sources from the business organization. This involves opening the door to a agreement with the Spanish Government and trade unions, whose governing bodies are also debating the proposal this Thursday.

Pending the final text, the Executive Committee has said yes to the reform, and CCOO and UGT have also summoned their governing bodies for this Thursday in order to analyze the status of the negotiation and decide whether or not to support the proposal that the Government has put on the table. The Government’s intention is to approve the labor reform in the Council of Ministers on the 28th, which would allow it to fulfill the commitment it acquired with Brussels to have the labor reform approved before December 31st.

The text proposed by the Government touches on various aspects of the Workers’ Statute, such as the hiring and the Collective negotiation, and has among its main objectives the reduction of the high temporary employment in Spain. Thus, it establishes that the ordinary employment contract will be indefinite and that can only be done two types of temporary contracts: structural and training.

The first of them, the structural one, can only respond to two causes: by production circumstances and by substitution of another worker with reservation of job, as long as it is perfectly specified who replaces the contracted worker.

At the same time, it is intended reinforce the definition and causality of the training contract, offering two types of contract: the alternate training contract, which will combine work and training, and the contract for the acquisition of professional practice.

The new labor legislation that the Government wants to introduce will promote the discontinuous fixed contract for the performance of work of a seasonal nature or seasonal activities. Work in administrative or commercial contracts will be able to take advantage of this modality and the seniority of the entire period of the employment relationship will be recognized, not only of the periods actually worked.

On the other hand, the text modifies the 2012 labor reform to recover the balance in collective bargaining, reinstating full ultra-activity, so that collective agreements will be extended until they are replaced by new ones, without a time limit, compared to the period of one year previously established.

Likewise, they want to promote internal flexibility measures such as temporary employment regulation files (ERTE) to avoid collective layoffs.