By: Dr. Mike Campbell
Anybody who has even a passing knowledge of the “struggle” between the “worker” and the “capitalist bosses” can’t help to be convinced that their relationship and the balance of their rights works like a pendulum. It seems that the balance fluctuates between exploitative management power on the one hand and dictatorial union power on the other. The most recent swing has placed the balance firmly on the side of the employer because of the recent cycles of economic boom and bust. However, in some countries, laws have been passed that are designed to protect workers rights and ensure that employees have a degree of employment protection, because they were brought in by left-leaning governments. Spain is one such country. If an employer needs to reduce their workforce, they must pay 45 days pay for every year that an employee has worked at the firm. A reform to the employment legislation, passed by royal decree, has reduced that to 33 days for every year worked. Naturally, unions are horrified at this erosion of worker’s rights and the employers are complaining that the move isn’t radical enough.
The trouble with employee guarantees is that they can induce employers to find ways around them such as only employing staff on short-term contracts or in other ways that will deny them the protection that the law was designed to give. It is claimed that the majority of the Spanish workforce is engaged under temporary employment contracts. The government move was designed to make hiring and firing easier in Spain, a country where 20% of the workforce is idle. Paying social security to one in five of the working population is simply not viable in a country that already has a substantial public sector debt problem.