Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2019, published 109th ILC session (2021)

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

The Committee notes the observations made by the Trade Union Confederation of Workers’ Commissions (CCOO) and the General Union of Workers (UGT), received on 2 and 7 August 2018, respectively. The Committee also notes the observations of the Spanish Confederation of Employers’ Organizations (CEOE), included in the Government’s report. It also notes the Government’s responses to these observations, included in its report.

Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. Labour market trends and implementation of an active employment policy. The Committee notes the approval on 15 December 2017 of the Spanish Strategy of Activation for Employment (EEAE) 2017–20, which sets out the activation policy of the National Employment System for the coming years and establishes a system of incentives under which the outcome of the evaluations of employment policies are related to the financing of Autonomous Communities. The EEAE 2017–20 provides that the services and programmes implemented by the public employment services shall be designed to achieve five strategic objectives: (i) promote activation and improve the employability of young people; (ii) strengthen the potential of employment as the principal instrument of social inclusion; (iii) promote a supply of training adapted to a changing labour market; (iv) improve the performance of public employment services through the modernization of the tools adopted by the National Employment System; and (v) adopt a holistic approach to activation policies by establishing areas for collaboration with employers, the social partners and other public and private agents. The EEAE is designed to be one of the three coordination tools of the National Employment System, together with the information system of public employment services and the Annual Employment Policy Plans (PAPE). In this regard, the Committee also notes the approval on 27 March 2018 of the Annual Employment Policy Plan for 2018, which specifies the objectives to be achieved during the course of the year and establishes forecasts for employment activation policy services and programmes proposed for implementation by public employment services, and the indicators to be used to assess the extent to which the objectives are achieved. The Plan forms part of a broader context of reforms introduced within the framework of the so-called “European Semester”, which include the National Reform Programme for 2018. The Committee also notes the information provided by the Government relating to the impact of the previous strategy (EEAE 2014–16). In particular, the Government indicates that, as a result of the EEAE 2014–16 and the improvement in the Spanish economy, since its approval, the number of employed persons rose by 2,980,600 (of whom 388,500 are under 30 years of age), the number of unemployed fell by 2,201,600 and the unemployment rate fell by 9.55 points. It adds that the percentage of jobseekers registered with public employment services who found a job in relation to the total number of jobseekers rose from 38.4 per cent in 2013 to 48.2 per cent in 2016. With regard to labour market trends, the Committee notes that, according to the Survey of the Active Population of the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the employment rate rose from 49.27 per cent in the third quarter of 2017 to 50.18 per cent in the third quarter of 2018, while the activity rate fell from 58.92 per cent to 58.73 per cent. Moreover, the unemployment rate fell from 16.38 per cent to 14.55 per cent. Nevertheless, in its observations, the CCOO indicates that a significant proportion of the decrease in the number of the unemployed corresponds to the fall in the active population. It adds that most of the employment created is concentrated in very low productivity sectors and continues to be precarious and low quality. In this regard, the CCOO considers that the contracts that are being concluded continue in their majority to be temporary and indicates that in 2017 some 95 per cent of contracts were temporary or part-time. The CCOO alleges that the average duration of temporary contracts is continuing to fall and that the number of short- and very short-term temporary contracts is increasing, as is labour mobility. In its reply, the Government indicates that, although the majority of contracts concluded are temporary, in 2017, for the first time since the beginning of the recovery, net employment creation for employees with indefinite contracts (263,900) was higher than for those with temporary contracts (222,900). The Committee notes the emphasis placed by workers’ organizations on the lack of sufficient resources for employment policies and their preparation without knowledge of the impact evaluation of previous labour market policies, which prevents possible shortcomings in their application from being identified. They also consider that the evaluation of the Annual Employment Policy Plan is undertaken through a system of indicators which only serve as a tool for the distribution of budgetary resources for active policies between Autonomous Communities on the basis of objectives. They add that this evaluation system does not permit an evaluation of the impact of employment policies and lacks a gender perspective. The CCOO, UGT and CEOE call for a systematic evaluation of the impact of employment policies so that resources are assigned for measures that have proved to be more effective in improving employability and vocational integration. The Committee requests the Government to provide an evaluation, undertaken in consultation with the social partners, of the impact of the employment measures adopted to achieve the objectives of the Convention, and particularly on the manner in which they helped the beneficiaries to obtain full, productive and lasting employment. The Committee also requests the Government to continue providing updated statistical information on labour market trends, and particularly on the active population, employment and unemployment rates, disaggregated by sex and age.

Youth employment. In its previous comments, the Committee requested the Government to provide an evaluation, undertaken in consultation with the social partners, of the employment measures to ascertain the specific results achieved through the Strategy for Entrepreneurship and Youth Employment and the Youth Guarantee System, particularly for young people with low skills. However, the Government has not provided information on this subject. The Committee notes that, according to the Survey of the Active Population, the employment rate for young persons under 25 years of age rose from 25.64 per cent in the third quarter of 2017 to 26.27 per cent in the third quarter of 2018, and the unemployment rate fell from 35.97 per cent to 33 per cent. Over the same period, the activity rate of that age group fell from 40.04 per cent to 39.21 per cent. The Government indicates that the strategic objectives of the EEAE 2017–20 include improving the employability and integration of young people under 30 years of age who are neither studying nor working through the assistance provided by the system. In this regard, the Government refers to the continued implementation of the programme, which has the objective of ensuring that all young people under 30 years of age receive a job offer, further education or a period of practice within a maximum period of four months after completing formal education or becoming unemployed. The Government adds that the changes made to the National Youth Guarantee System have made it possible to increase the number of persons registered to 1,096,798 young people in March 2018, of whom 470,032 found employment, which represents an employability rate of 43 per cent. Nevertheless, the CCOO considers that, although the youth employment statistics have improved in recent years, this is largely due to the fall in the youth population actively seeking employment and its emigration, which tends to improve unemployment and activity indicators. The Government indicates that this fall is also due to the evolution of the demographic pyramid and adds that the number of demotivated unemployed persons under 30 years of age in the second quarter of 2018 was 46 per cent lower than in the second quarter of 2014. However, the CCOO observes that measures have not yet been adopted with a view to the joint determination with the social partners of the Spanish Youth Entrepreneurship Strategy 2017–20, or a training and knowledge transmission programme in employment through replacement contracts, the preparation of a charter of non-labour practices and the development of a comprehensive programme of employment policy measures for unskilled young people, including the improvement of guidance services. The UGT observes that young people tend to have access to their first job through a temporary contract (in 2017, there were 2,338,800 young employed persons under 30 years of age with temporary contracts, accounting for 57 per cent of the total of employed persons with temporary contracts) and under precarious conditions. The UGT considers that initiatives for the creation of youth employment, such as the Youth Guarantee, are based on more precarious working conditions for young people. In this respect, the Committee notes that, according to the 2018 report on Spain prepared by the European Commission in the framework of the European Semester (SWD (2018) 207 final), there continue to be difficulties in the application of the Youth Guarantee, among which it emphasizes the difficulty of reaching out to young people neither in employment, nor in education or training (“NEETs”) and those who are most vulnerable, the limited capacity of public employment services to provide personalized action plans and high-quality job offers adapted to the profiles of young beneficiaries. Finally, the workers’ organizations indicate that the Delegated Commission of the Youth Guarantee System provided information to the social partners on the outreach of the programme, but that, although there has been progress, the information provided was not adequate. In this regard, the CEOE considers that it is necessary to be provided with fuller information on the specific activities undertaken with the beneficiaries of the programme and their impact in terms of integration and increased employability as a means of evaluating the impact of such measures. The Committee therefore repeats its request to the Government to provide an evaluation, carried out in consultation with the social partners, of the employment measures to ascertain the specific results achieved through the measures adopted to promote youth employment, particularly for low-skilled young people, including those who are neither in employment, nor in education or training (“NEETs”).

Long-term unemployed. In reply to the Committee’s previous comments, the Government indicates that, according to the data of the Survey of the Active Population, 52.5 per cent of the unemployed in 2017 were long-term unemployed, of whom 73 per cent had been seeking work for over two years. The long-term unemployment rate increases for persons over 55 years of age, whose situation is frequently aggravated by their low skill levels. The Government reports on the implementation of the joint action programme for the long-term unemployed, adopted in 2016, which provides for the development of personalized integration plans adapted to the occupational profiles of the long-term unemployed with a view to accelerating their return to work. Moreover, the Activation for Employment Programme has been renovated and the unemployment rate required for the Vocational Reskilling Programme (PREPARA) to be automatically extended has been reduced from 20 to 18 per cent. Both programmes are intended for the long-term unemployed who are in receipt of a cash benefit conditional on their participation in active employment policies. The Committee also notes, based on the 2018 report on Spain prepared by the European Commission, that the effectiveness of activation policies for this category of persons largely depends on the capacity of the public employment services in the Autonomous Communities and their coordination with employers and social services, which are improving only slowly. According to the report, although the rate of the long-term unemployed escaping from their situation of unemployment increased from 8.6 per cent in 2013 to 10.7 per cent in 2015, only 8.7 per cent of all the long-term unemployed who were registered had concluded a labour integration agreement in 2016 (compared with an average of 56.2 per cent in the European Union). The CCOO considers that, according to the data of the public employment services, some 1.66 million unemployed persons are excluded from the unemployment protection system, and only 58 per cent of the registered unemployed (52 per cent of whom are women and 62 per cent men) have protection of any kind. It adds that poverty levels therefore continue to be very high and indicates that in the first quarter of 2018 there were 1,241,800 households in which all the active members were unemployed and that in 2017, there were 1,103,000 persons without income (wages, pensions or benefits). The UGT indicates that the employment policy measures are not adequate to address structural unemployment. In this regard, the UGT emphasizes the need to take action to attract inactive unemployed persons to the public employment services, develop guidance services with personalized plans and establish an integration agreement bringing together the rights and duties of both the unemployed and service providers. The Committee once again requests the Government, with the participation of the social partners, to provide an impact assessment of the measures adopted to facilitate the labour market return of the long-term and very long-term unemployed.

Education and vocational training programmes and policies. In reply to the Committee’s previous comments, the Government refers once again to Act No. 30/2015, of 9 September, regulating the in-work vocational training system for employment, which includes the objectives of guaranteeing the exercise of the right to training for workers, employees and the unemployed, and particularly those who are vulnerable. The Government reports the adoption of Royal Decree No. 694/2017, of 3 July, implementing the Act. The Committee notes the information contained in the Government’s report on the various types of training that are provided, including programmed training by enterprises, and the provision of training courses for employed workers and the unemployed. With regard to the training programmes for the unemployed, the Government indicates that it is intended to programme, with a compulsory and non-binding report by the most representative employers’ and workers’ organizations, the provision of training for the unemployed adapted to the individual training needs of each worker and the requirements of the production system, with a view to them acquiring the skills required by the labour market and improving their employability. In addition to their participation in these programmes, unemployed workers will also be able to participate in the training available for employed workers. The Committee also notes, based on the information contained in the report of the European Commission, that people with higher qualifications encounter difficulties in finding appropriate jobs, and that both over-qualification and under-qualification are common in Spain. The proportion of people with higher qualifications in jobs which do not require higher education was 39.7 per cent in 2016 (the European Union average is 23.5 per cent). Finally, the Committee notes the observations of the social partners concerning vocational education and training programmes, which are examined in the context of the application of the Human Resources Development Convention, 1975 (No. 142). The Committee requests the Government to continue providing detailed information on the measures that are adopted or envisaged, in collaboration with the social partners, to improve skills levels and coordinate education and training policies with potential employment opportunities, particularly for disadvantaged or vulnerable groups.

Article 3. Consultation with the social partners. In reply to the Committee’s previous comments, the Government indicates that the EEAE 2017–20 is the product of dialogue and consensus with the social partners and the Autonomous Communities, within the framework of the various bodies on which they are represented, including sectoral conferences and the Dialogue Round Table of the Shock Employment Plan. Nevertheless, the CCOO denounces the failure to comply with the right to be informed and consulted through participatory and consultative bodies on which the social partners are represented. The CCOO indicates that the General Council of the National Employment System has not been convened. The UGT considers that there is a continued failure to give effect to this Article of the Convention, as there is no real participation in the design, evaluation and implementation of policies. Finally, the CEOE emphasizes once again that the social partners are not able to make observations prior to the preparation of the National Reform Programme and calls for more active participation in its preparation, application and evaluation. The Committee requests the Government to continue providing detailed information on the manner in which it is ensured that the social partners can participate actively in the design, implementation and evaluation of employment policies.