The trade association Afedeco and the trade union UGT, the majority in the sector, have reached an agreement in principle to transform some 20,000 workers into permanent employees according to the estimates of the latter organizations, although the employers lower this figure as they believe that jobs will be lost along the way. Both parties have decided to convert the sector’s agreement in the first of the islands to adapt to the new labor reform, and also with the support of the Govern, which will join in a three-way pact to promote training and occupational health among the workforce.
The decision of both parties, in which the CC OO and Pimeco also want to be included, is to set up an special negotiating table for the agreement to introduce the contractual figures considered in the reform, while negotiating the way in which they can be applied. In this way, the secretary general of the federation of this sector in UGT, José GarcÃa Relucio, pointed out that among the issues to be addressed are the conditions in which the employees who until now had contracts such as work and service contracts (employees in commercial promotions such as the summer, sales or Black Friday) will in many cases become permanent discontinuous. For example, the aim is to ensure that they have at least six months of work per year, although it could be three in winter and three in summer, to give an example.
Employees benefit
In the opinion of the UGT representative, this adjustment will result in 20,000 temporary employees becoming permanent employees.
The president of Afedeco, Toni Gayá, believes that this figure will be lower because the tough economic situation that many businesses are going through will make it impossible for all of them to take on this change, which means that some jobs will be lost. In addition, he recalled that the temporary contract modality that does not exceed 90 days is maintained.
In any case, both parties agreed that there will be many workers in the sector who will have a more stable situation in their companies. The intention is that these changes are incorporated into the Balearic trade agreement during March.
However, a second agreement is to be added to this modification, in this case of a tripartite nature, given that the Regional Ministry of Productive Sectors will join the agreement, with the participation of its head, vice-president Juan Pedro Yllanes, and the director general of Commerce, Miguel Piñol.
This pact seeks that the Executive finances improved training of the workforces, taking advantage of the greater stability for the employees inside the companies and attending to the needs of the sector.
Specifically, the employers will determine which qualified workers are most needed because of their shortage (for example, butchers) in order to organize courses to cover the needs.
Likewise, studies will be carried out to determine the occupational health risks of these workforces in order to design the necessary corrective measures, according to the UGT representative.
This second tripartite agreement is very similar to the one signed four years ago for the hotel and catering sector, together with the signing of its last collective bargaining agreement.
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