Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1993, published 80th ILC session (1993)

Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) - Spain (Ratification: 1970)

1. The Committee took note of the very full and detailed report supplied by the Government for the period ending 30 June 1992, which transmits comments relating to the application of the Convention from the General Union of Workers (UGT) and the Trade Union Confederation of Workers' Committees (CC.OO.). It is particularly grateful that the Government has made substantial and precise replies to the Committee's previous comments, as well as to the points raised by the two trade union organizations.

2. The Committee notes the detailed statistics and analyses of developments in the active population, employment, underemployment and unemployment for the years 1990 and 1991. Supplemented for 1992 by data contained in OECD surveys, this information shows the persistence of a worrying employment situation, characterized in particular by a continuing high level of unemployment. The strong economic growth achieved over previous years has been followed, since 1990, by a slow-down which has become even more marked since the beginning of 1992 and which has affected the creation of jobs. Despite the slower growth of the active population, the unemployment rate, which was 16.3 per cent in 1990 and 1991, has risen again and is estimated at nearly 18 per cent in 1992. The employment situation is still characterized by important disparities between regions, sexes and age groups, which continue to be affected very unequally by unemployment and underemployment. The regional variation in unemployment is still considerable, with rates ranging between 10 per cent (Rioja) and 26 per cent (Andalucia). A decrease in the unemployment rate for women and young persons over the period has been accompanied by an increase in the number of unemployed men in the age groups in which they are most active. Furthermore, the increase in temporary employment, which now accounts for more than one-third of all employment, bears witness to a trend towards more precarious employment which has already been noted by the Committee. The UGT and the CC.OO. express concern at the data on employment and unemployment and emphasize, in particular, the harmful effects of the development of more precarious forms of employment not only for the workers but also for the national economy.

3. The Government states that in order to combat the growing unemployment and its particular impact on certain categories of the active population more effectively it has harmonized and rationalized all the measures taken by the State to encourage recruitment. It refers in this respect to the adoption of Act No. 22/1992 of 30 July 1992 respecting urgent measures for the promotion of employment and the protection of unemployment, the provisions of which aim in particular to strengthen active measures to encourage the recruitment into full-time employment and employment without limit of time of unemployed persons who have particular difficulty in entering the labour market, such as young persons, older workers, women and the long-term unemployed. In order to ensure that these measures achieve their objective and to avoid abuse, the grant of the incentives is subject to the net creation of jobs by the enterprise, which also has to undertake to maintain the level of employment for three years. Furthermore, the minimum duration of employment promotion contracts has been raised from six to 12 months, while full-time integration or training contracts no longer allow for an exemption or reduction of employers' social security contributions. The Government also describes other employment promotion programmes, such as the special employment programmes in the public sector and the rural employment plan. It also refers to the National Vocational Training and Integration Plan, under which priority is now given to the training for employment of young persons who are failures at school, the long-term unemployed and women with low skill levels.

4. The UGT and the CC.OO. make a series of allegations relating to the provisions and the circumstances of the adoption of Legislative Decree No. 1/1992 of 3 April 1992 respecting urgent measures for the promotion of employment and protection of unemployment. The Committee has examined the allegations relating to entitlement to unemployment benefits and their calculation in relation to the relevant provisions of Convention No. 102, and refers to its comments on the application of that Convention. However, it notes that, with regard to the circumstances which result in the suspension or reduction of entitlement to the above benefits, the CC.OO. considers that the new definition of suitable employment allows an excessive extension of the concept which is likely to be applied in practice in a manner which is contrary to the objective of freely chosen employment, as set out in Article 1, paragraph 2(c), of the Convention. The Government states that this definition remains essentially unchanged and responds to the need to limit the protection in question to cases of temporary and involuntary unemployment. The Committee requests the Government to supply information on the implementation of this provision in relation to the principle of freely chosen employment.

5. The two organizations also accuse the Government of having eliminated, by means of the above Legislative Decree, the opportunity which was provided to the unemployed who wished to create their own enterprise to receive their unemployment benefit in the form of a lump sum. They consider that it has therefore revoked an important measure for the promotion of self-employment. The Government justifies the elimination of this measure by its concern to regularly review the various employment promotion programmes taking into account the results that they have achieved. It states that in this case the high proportion of rapidly abandoned activities undertaken as a result of this measure bore sufficient witness to its ineffectiveness and it states that new measures for the promotion of self-employment are under examination. The Committee recalls the conclusions concerning self-employment promotion adopted by the Conference (77th Session, June 1990) and would be grateful if the Government would supply information in its next report on any new measure adopted to this effect.

6. More generally, the UGT considers that Legislative Decree No. 1/1992 constitutes a regression with regard to the objective of an active policy to promote employment, in the sense of Article 1 of the Convention. According to the UGT, employment is regarded as a residual variable with the labour market bearing the burden of structural adjustments. The above central trade union organization notes that the proportion of the budget devoted to active measures is still relatively low in relation to most other European countries, particularly taking into consideration the Spanish unemployment rate. It concludes that it is necessary to reorient the employment policy since greater flexibility on the labour market has not had the positive effects on the creation of jobs which were envisaged. The Government emphasizes that the new provisions are aimed at giving better guarantees for the integration of the persons concerned into the labour market and at ensuring that the various programmes are not used with the sole aim of reducing labour costs. It states that a large proportion of temporary contracts, when accompanied by incentives, are converted into contracts without limit of time or are renewed. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would describe the extent to which the various programmes contribute to the effective and lasting integration of the persons concerned into employment. Furthermore, in view of the rise in unemployment among the categories of the active population which are not covered by measures to encourage recruitment, it requests the Government to indicate the methods which it intends to use to ensure that these measures do not result in a redistribution of existing jobs between the various categories of the active population, rather than the creation of new jobs.

7. Furthermore, in the opinion of the UGT and the CC.OO., the Government's recourse to the unusual procedure of a Legislative Decree to adopt these measures bears witness to its desire to avoid the preliminary tripartite dialogue required by Article 3 of the Convention as well as the necessary democratic debate. The Government considers that it satisfied this latter requirement by submitting the Legislative Decree to Parliament, under the procedure which resulted in the adoption of Act No. 22/1992 of 3 July 1992. It also states that it only had to have recourse to an emergency procedure by reason of the rejection by workers' organizations of its proposal of June 1991 to open a vast negotiation to revise all the procedures for recruitment, the labour ordinances, and the systems for the protection of unemployment and vocational training, with a view to the conclusion of a "social pact for progress" with the social partners. The Committee is bound to express its concern at the difficulties which appear to be encountered in establishing a tripartite dialogue concerning employment policy measures. It notes in this respect the recent establishment of the Economic and Social Council and would be grateful if the Government would indicate whether this institution has examined matters relating to employment policy, or whether it is envisaged that it will do so.

8. Finally, the Committee recalls that under Article 2, the measures to be adopted with a view to achieving these objectives must lie within "the framework of a coordinated economic and social policy". In order to enable it to evaluate the effect given to this fundamental provision of the Convention, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would supply in its future reports the information required in this respect by the report form.