2023-06-12 17:37:20
Employers and unions have broken negotiations to renew the Interprofessional Agreement of Catalonia (AIC), a kind of ‘agreement of agreements’ that has historically included a series of recommendations to guide sector negotiations. The lack of agreement between the social agents It means that this pact is not renewed and paralyzes the leap in quality that the organizations of companies and workers tried to give it. EL PERIÓDICO has had access to the latest draft shared by employers and unions before the talks were blown up.
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And it is that for the first time in the history of the Catalan agreement, Promotion of Work, Pime, CCOO y UGT They were about to include a series of contents that would have changed the conditions of telecommuting, digitization y digital disconnection. With the obligation for companies to negotiate protocols to introduce new technologies that could eliminate jobs, among others.
The absence of an agreement represents a missed opportunity to standardize the working conditions of Catalan workers in these aspects and promises, among other things, to increase labor conflict in those agreements that are currently blocked.
The Interprofessional Agreement of Catalonia (AIC) is a document signed by Foment del Treball, Pimec, CCOO and UGT as the most representative employers and unions in Catalonia. They renew it from time to time, it usually has a periodicity of three years and the last date of the period 2018-2020. Since then it has expired and is pending renewal. The irruption of the pandemic in between has not contributed and finally the parties have not reached an agreement.
Said document incorporates a series of recommendations to guide the collective bargaining of the sectors and commits the signatories. For example, when metal negotiators from Barcelona have to negotiate their agreement, they must refer to the agreements signed in the AIC for this. For example, before the last labour reform will recover the ultraactivity of the agreements, the AIC already collected it and the parties promised not to lapse any agreement without an agreement for the next one.
What were the main pre-agreed novelties?
The main difference with previous AICs is that the present and failed one sought to make a leap in quality and go from being a mere recommendation – without consequences if it was not complied with – to making some aspects mandatory by law.
Priority for Catalan agreements: Collective agreements can have three territorial dimensions: state, regional and provincial. And the intention of the social agents was to give precedence to those in Catalonia, to reinforce the framework of their own relations. In other words, when two agreements from the same sector overlap, companies must apply Catalan.
- digitization: The companies would have had the obligation to previously inform the legal representation of the workers of any new technology that they were going to introduce and that could suppose a substantial modification of the working conditions. And jointly analyze with the unions what impacts all this could have on employment, either by way of destroying jobs, or by the need for different profiles.
- digital disconnection: The pre-agreement contemplated recognizing the right of every worker to “not attend telephone communications, messages or emails […] after the end of the workday. And it forced all companies to negotiate a protocol to guarantee said right.
- Telecommuting: The social agents contemplated guaranteeing by agreement that all workers who could and wanted to telework would have the right to have the company provide them with a laptop. Also a mobile phone, in case your work requires it. And they would have the right to receive a salary bonus to avoid that the distance exercise implied an additional cost, the amount of which would be determined according to the sector.
Why have the negotiations broken down?
What has ended up blowing up the renewal of the AIC has been the proposal to give application priority to the regional agreements about state ones. This has been the reason why Foment del Treball has refused to sign, since internally it was a matter that involved a conflict. Both among its Catalan associates, and with its organization at the state level, the CEOE. And it is that these are not in favor of reinforcing territorial autonomy.
The chemical industryaccording to different sources consulted, has pressed to avoid forming an autonomous agreement at the Catalan level that could cause an increase in labor costs.
What consequences will the breakup have?
The first consequence of the failure to renew the AIC is the loss of confidence among the top leaders of the social partners. Unions have been visibly angry especially with Foment del Treball and its president, Josep Sánchez Bookwhom they have accused of “disloyalty” and of acting more as a lobbyist than as an employer representative.
This climate of mistrust may hinder future negotiations at the Catalan level, such as those taking place in the Social Dialogue Council of Catalonia next to the Government Although the bulk of the social dialogue takes place at the state level, as with the labor and pension reforms, aid granted by the Generalitat usually goes through the Catalan concertation first.
Another possible consequence is the increase in conflict in pending or stalled negotiations. The unions have already threatened that they will push harder on those agreements that they were currently holding back on, for the sake of that framework agreement. The list of offices and offices in Barcelona, which affects more than 120,000 people, promises to be that first battlefield.
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