The Government introduces in the subsidy decree the prevalence of autonomous agreements promised to the PNV

MADRID, 20 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Government has introduced in the Royal Decree-Law that reforms the unemployment benefit the application priority of the regional agreements over the state and sectoral ones that Pedro Sánchez promised the PNV in the investiture agreement with this formation.

This matter was not reported at the press conference after the Council of Ministers that approved the subsidy reform and in which the second vice president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, appeared; the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños; the Government spokesperson and Minister of Education, Pilar Alegría, and the Minister of Health, Mónica García.

It was Aitor Esteban, spokesperson for the PNV in Congress, who revealed yesterday that this matter had been approved in the Council of Ministers. And, indeed, the Official State Gazette (BOE) of this Wednesday includes within the rule that reforms the unemployment benefit the prevalence of regional agreements over sectoral and state ones, although "conditional" on their application being more favorable for workers than that established in state conventions or agreements.

As explained by the Government in the explanatory statement of the decree approved yesterday by the Council of Ministers, the text incorporates a modification of article 84 of the consolidated text of the Workers' Statute "in order to improve the regulation of collective bargaining in the within the autonomous communities, ensuring the application of the most favorable agreements or conventions for workers".

The Executive points out that the 1994 reform of the Workers' Statute and the articulated text of the Labor Procedure Law and the Law on Infractions and Sanctions in the Social Order introduced an important reform in terms of conventional structure with the intention of promoting the role of collective bargaining at the regional level, also favoring the progression of what at that time was called the autonomous labor relations frameworks.

"It was about allowing these lower-level agreements to affect collective agreements at the state level. The wording introduced, however, was not completely correct in the design, among other issues because, together with collective bargaining at the regional level, it promoted and granted powers to sign agreements or agreements with said effects also in any area above the company and below the state level," the Government argues.

This wording was subject to subsequent modification by the Royal Decree-Law of 2011 on urgent measures for the reform of collective bargaining, in which, although the possibility of affecting state collective agreements is limited to the autonomous negotiating sphere, "it introduces important conditions by leaving this possibility to the discretion of the agreements or agreements at the state level," says the Executive.

With the modification introduced within the framework of the unemployment benefit reform, the Government "proceeds to clarify" the current regulation so that, maintaining the requirements that regional agreements and agreements be signed by legally legitimized subjects and the eventual limitation to regulate some matters, "these agreements and agreements signed at the regional level will have application priority over any other sectoral agreement or agreement at the state level, provided that said agreements and agreements obtain the support of the majorities required to constitute the negotiating commission in the corresponding bargaining unit."

However, adds the Government, "said application priority is now conditioned exclusively on the regulation of the autonomous agreements or agreements being more favorable for workers than that established in the state agreements or agreements, so that at the same time the development is promoted. of the autonomous areas of negotiation and the rights of workers".

The prevalence of regional agreements over sectoral agreements was a measure that was excluded from the 2021 labor reform, but was included in the agreement that the nationalists reached with the PSOE for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez.

As Aitor Esteban highlighted yesterday, the approval of this measure has been "long demanded" by the working class and the unions in Euskadi. "It expands what we usually call our own framework of relations," stressed the Basque spokesperson.

Specifically, the PSOE and the PNV agreed to reform article 84 of the Workers' Statute for the priority of autonomous agreements to invest in Pedro Sánchez, something that was not included in the 2021 labor reform and that caused rejection by the nationalists. in the vote.

This measure does not please the unions. Both UGT and CCOO pointed out that the structure of collective bargaining has to be addressed within the framework of social dialogue and it is a modification that was not taken into account within the scope of the labor reform.

The idea of ​​the Basques, according to a bill that they have also registered in this legislature, was that legitimate unions and business associations of an autonomous community can negotiate collective agreements and regional interprofessional agreements "that will have application priority over any other sectoral agreement or agreement at the state level".

The PNV wanted this to happen as long as the community agreements obtained the support of the majorities required to constitute the negotiating commission in the corresponding bargaining unit and its regulation was more favorable for workers than that established in the state agreements.