The social dialogue in Catalonia between the Government, unions and employers goes through low hours and the ‘conseller’ Roger Torrent photographs of unity with economic agents are resisting him. Relations are tense -not irreconcilable- and the last major scuffle took place this week with the labour reform involved and the angry reaction of the plants. Although there are several shared folders that are stuck or that have left little progress in recent months at the tables of the Catalan agreement: from the agreements of Collective negotiation until the new industrial pact. Others have not directly entered into the fight yet, as is the case of the Catalan minimum wage.
Throughout the weekend the Catalan Executive, the employers and the unions were exchanging messages to try to save the first great disagreement of the social dialogue. However, this ended up being consummated on Tuesday and the ‘conseller’ of Empresa i Treball had to appear alone before the media to account for a new item of 60 million euros in aid to the restaurant sector and for workers in Good. The announcement, which was well received by the potential beneficiaries, did not come with the seal of the domes of Work Promotion, Pimec, CCOO and UGT. The unit photograph with the ‘president’ Pere Aragonès had to be called off at the last minute.
The unions wanted to strengthen the involvement of the Catalan coordination bodies to follow up and be proactive in complying with the new labor reform, according to sources from the three benches. The approach did not like the businessmen, who were attacked with the following phrase proposed from the plants: “The tools and instruments must be put in place to convey the new norm.” “They raised it in the negative, little else and it seemed that they wanted to put a labor inspector at the door of each company,” they say from the business caucus. The ‘conselleria’ directed by ERC did not want to champion a reform against which they voted in Congress against the criteria of the employers.
The labor reform is weighing, with Pimec out of its negotiations at the state level and Foment contrary to the text that ended up being approved by its large employers CEOE. And until now the negotiation of it in Madrid has blocked the collective bargaining agreement in Catalonia. Well, the negotiators were looking askance at what was agreed at the state level to condition their positions at the regional level. Result: the last Interprofessional Agreement of Catalonia (AIC) It has been pending renewal since January 2021. And the negotiators of the sectoral agreements lack shared guidelines to agree on issues such as, for example, teleworking.
No big industry deal
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Another roundtable whose progress has been hampered by the lack of agreement is the National Pact for Industry. This brings together a series of public policies to develop and strengthen the weight of industrial activity in the Catalan economy and entails a significant public budget. It has not been renewed since 2020, a collateral victim of the electoral advances of recent years. Last September Torrent began talks to renew it, with the initial forecast of having it signed with the social agents this January. At the moment there is no agreement and the budget of €2.8 billion until 2025 does not generate the necessary consensus. Not so much because of the amount, but because its critics affirm that it is limited to grouping the ordinary budget of the departments and does not mobilize extraordinary resources for actions that can transform the Catalan industrial fabric. “Either the quality of the agreements is good or we will not appear in empty photos,” they warn from the central offices.
The lack of legislative powers of the Generalitat means that the social coordination bodies must be well oiled to deploy initiatives such as the Catalan minimum wage. Torrent raised at the beginning of the legislature to make this issue, in addition to the National Pact for Industry, two of his legacies as ‘conseller’. The Catalan SMI promises to stress this agreement, since the employers have already been opposed to raising the minimum interprofessional salary to 1,000 euros and Torrent’s proposal is to raise the bar above the 1.239 euros. Currently this question is stopped, waiting for the Department of Economy to make a report to update this figure with the current costs of living. From the Department of Labor they hope to have the new figure before summer to be able to start negotiating it with employers and unions, thus testing again the ability to reach agreements in the Catalan social dialogue.