The advisors give their opinion… about the Labor Reform

Let's talk about the recent labor reform, what has this radical change in the types of employment contracts meant for your group? Do you think it is appropriate and necessary?

MIGUEL D´HARCOURT BAULUZ, PRESIDENT OF THE ILLUSTRATED COLLEGE OF SOCIAL, RRLL AND HR GRADUATES OF LA RIOJA

The main problem that we have and are suffering from is the lack of knowledge in the practical application of the new forms of employment contracts. An attempt has been made to gather information from the Public Administration in order to correctly guide and advise our clients, but the responses have not been as clarifying as the situation requires.

The reform mainly aims to reduce temporary employment contracts. The regulation of the labor market is causing a loss of flexibility in favor of indefinite employment relationships. Which produces an apparent improvement in the macroeconomic data but does not correct the deep structural problems that reduce the efficiency of the Spanish labor market.

From my particular point of view, I understand that the agreements reached between the social agents for the labor reform give it adequate credibility, but it would be necessary to correct deviations that have not been addressed.

I give as an example the situation of the current labor market with an unemployment rate of around 13% and more than 130,000 unfilled jobs as of June 2022. These data show us the social needs, the labor needs and should lead us to a broader approach that would include secondary and university training, to adapt it to the future structural needs of the labor market. Labor reform is not enough. 

JOSÉ LUIS BENITO BERMEJO, PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE OF SOCIAL GRADUATES OF SEGOVIA

For the group, this reform has meant a change that has required training, as well as uncertainty, since the norm will now require interpretation by the courts, which implies uncertainty until the judicial criteria are established, but it is true that this happens with all reforms.

As for whether the reform was necessary and appropriate, I believe that it was necessary, since our hiring system caused very high rates of temporary employment. A different question is whether this reform is appropriate.

In this regard, I believe that it has not been adequate, firstly because it has not been a sufficiently profound reform, and secondly, because, from my point of view, an attempt has been made to lower the temporality of hiring in a somewhat fictitious way, without this translating into stability in employment. As a consequence of this, I do not consider that it will provide solutions to our unemployment levels, but rather that the causes for which workers access unemployment will only change, because what was previously a termination of contract will now be a loss during a trial period, a dismissal or a failure to call a discontinued worker.

JESÚS VALDEPEÑAS, OF TOLEDO & ASSOCIATES (MADRID)

In our case and due to the principle of prudence, we have always been very restrictive when advising the creation of temporary contracts since with the regulations in force before the reform, in most cases the temporary contracts that were made in our country were in violation of the law and this in the long run generated problems for the client that could end up being blamed on us. Regarding the suitability of the new reform, it has its positive aspects although, in our opinion, it suffers from a certain lack of flexibility.

JESÚS CONCHA, FROM J. CONCHA CONSULTING (MADRID)

The labor reform is like all reforms, they are always conflictive. Nobody is completely happy: workers are not happy, business owners, self-employed workers and SMEs are not happy either... A labor reform in which practically all contracts become indefinite is conflictive. The clients I work with, who are self-employed and small businesses, when I tell them that from now on they have to make indefinite contracts...

Most of the self-employed and SMEs I work with are in survival, they are struggling

Every day there are more freelancers and companies leaving, more businesses close every day, it is true that others also open, but the situation is not easy and when you tell clients that contracts have to be made indefinite, they throw up their hands. In the end they will give him an indefinite contract and the worker will stay for as long as the small entrepreneur and self-employed person can last.

NOELIA PÉREZ MAGÁN, SENIOR MANAGER OF THE LABOR OUTSOURCING DEPARTMENT OF BDO(MADRID)

It has meant that our clients are faced with the difficulty of making certain hires, given their activity, which has led us to have to advise them to be able to fit their hiring needs into the new contracts that have been approved after the labor reform.