In August, the Pitiüses again surpassed the barrier of jobs registered before the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. 94,541 registered social security contributors were reached that month between the two islands, 2.4% more than in 2019, which means that there were 2,212 more people in work than back then, according to data just published by the Balearic Institute of Statistics (Ibestat). And in addition, the quality of employment, as the number of contributors to the general regime (salaried) with an indefinite contract (64,723) increased by 60% compared to last year (when there were 40,355).
To this positive data the remarkable increase in permanent contracts so far this year must be added: of the 63,837 created in the Pitiüses between January and August, 78% (50,012) were permanent, 240% more than in 2019, when only 14,680 were signed. In contrast, the temporary contracts processed in eight months (13,595) are down 76.7% compared to those recorded before the health crisis broke out (58,300). The labor reform has turned the labor tortilla upside down to the point of converting those jobs that were usually temporary into permanent (the vast majority being permanent-discontinuous).
But does it occur on the islands, that employers faced with the practical impossibility of hiring temporarily since the reform came into force, dismiss these permanent employees before the end of their probationary period, as USO denounced this week for the whole country? The union calculates that the number of dismissals for not passing the trial period has increased by 900%. Llorenç Pou, Balearic general director of Economic Model and Employment, assures that not only do they have no evidence that this is happening, but they have also found that “the maintenance rate (the percentage of permanent job contracts that are maintained over time) are significantly higher than those of 2018 and 2019, about 15 percentage points more”. In other words, not only are there more permanent job contracts, but also fewer are terminated than before the pandemic. Pou believes that this is due both to the change in the labor model, which seems to have taken hold, and, above all, to the lack of qualified personnel on the islands, one of the main problems that companies had to face this season and that put more than one in check.
“Job loyalty, not dismissal”
“What the employer wants is to retain staff, not dismiss them”. Not only Pou has said it, but also the Ibizan Alicia Reina, president of the Spanish Association of Hotel Managers of the Balearic Islands: “What we want is to retain the loyalty of the worker due to the lack of supply,” she says. So dismissing workers in this way would be like shooting yourself in the foot at a time when labor is scarce.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.