Sánchez, Calviño and Díaz today launch a new meeting format for the social dialogue table

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, has summoned the first and second vice presidents this Tuesday at noon, Nadia Calvin and Yolanda Diaz, and the Ministers of Finance, Social Security and Education, María Jesús Montero, José Luis Escrivá and Pilar Alegría, respectively, to establish a common position for tomorrow’s meeting with social agents to reform the labor market.

The meeting will be held at the Palacio de La Moncloa after the fight between Díaz and Calviño on account of this negotiation and after the Sánchez has generated discomfort among his government partners for avoiding talking about the repeal of the 2012 labor reform and referring only to the need to “rebuild some things that were done” wrongly then.

Tomorrow, like every Wednesday, the social dialogue table on labor reform, but it will, for the first time with new formatSince, until now, only the Ministry of Labor represented the Executive at that table, the PSOE reached an agreement with Podemos that will allow the Ministries of Social Security, Economic Affairs, Finance and Education to also be represented at this table.

It is also expected that this Tuesday the Secretaries of State for Employment, Joaquín Pérez Rey; Economy, Gonzalo García Andrés; Social Security, Israel Arroyo; Hacienda, María José Gualda, as well as the Secretary General for Vocational Training, Clara Sanz, to prepare for Wednesday’s meeting with the social agents tomorrow. This group will meet every Wednesday afternoon to analyze the development of the table and coordinate the work of preparing the next dialogue table.

Keep what has been negotiated until now

Regardless of the conflict between Díaz and Calviño and once the government will coordinate at this table has been resolved, CCOO and UGT hope that the Executive does not turn “upside down” matters that are already heavily negotiated, such as the recovery of the prevalence of the sectoral agreement over that of the company that altered the PB reform in 2012.

The intention of Pedro Sánchez is that the agreement to reform the labor market, which seeks, among other things, to tackle the high temporality, have the approval of the CEOE and not only of the unions.

The bosses wanted other ministries to sit at the table, in addition to Labor, but that does not imply that it will endorse the measures that are being negotiated at the table. In fact, the president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, claimed last week the freedom of his organization to say no to the agreement if it is contrary to business interests.

CCOO and UGT see it difficult, although not impossible, for the table to reach a three-way agreement, which includes the CEOE. They consider that the 2012 labor reform gave companies a lot of power, which they are not willing to give up.

The truth is the Government has committed to Brussels, within the framework of the Recovery Plan, to have this reform ready before the end of the year, so there are only a few weeks left to reach an agreement between the parties.