Socialists say labor reform breaches law

The opposition Socialist party said Friday it believes that aspects of Spain’s labor laws breach the Constitution and threatened to file a suit to have them struck off if the government fails to amend them in Congress.

Socialist spokeswoman Soraya Rodríguez said a new type of one-year contract included in the reform that allows companies to sack workers without justification and without any compensation is anti-constitutional.

Rodríguez said her party had consulted a number of different sources, including former justice and labor ministers, who believe that aspects of the reform breach Article 24 of the Constitution, which guarantees all people the effective protection of the judges and courts in the exercise of their rights and legitimate interests.

She said the reform is also at odds with Article 37, which guarantees the right to collective negotiations between workers and employers and upholds the binding nature of agreements between the two sides.

The reform makes it cheaper and easier for companies to sack workers. Companies can cite so-called objective causes, such as three consecutive quarters of falling sales, as a reason to dismiss workers with 20 days’ wages compensation for every year worked up to a maximum of one year. The legislation prior to the reform guaranteed those on open-ended contracts 45 days per year up to a maximum of 42 months.

“You cannot sack someone without justification,” Rodríguez said, referring to the new one-year contract. She said unilaterally lowering workers’ wages is not allowed by the law.

The reform allows changes to the terms of workers’ contracts, including job function and working hours as well as wages, with 15 days’ notice. Employees declining to accept the changes can be dismissed with the minimum compensation allowed by the new legislation.

The IMF on Thursday lauded the reform introduced by the new conservative Popular Party administration as a “step in the right direction.”

The multilateral agency in June of last year called on Spain for a bolder reform of its labor market that reduced severance costs and made collective bargaining more flexible.