The employers’ union has taken a little longer than other organizations, but it has also added to the resounding criticism of the investiture pacts formalized by the PSOE with Junts and ERC mainly. The CEOE considers that they damage the separation of powers and legal security and warns that with the climate that is being created “it is very difficult for there to be economic growth and job creation”.
A significant detail is that in the declaration the word amnesty is not mentioned at any time and is left to “the agreements reached in the framework of the investiture”. The mention of this word was decisive for the attendance at the meeting of the president of the Catalan employers’ association Foment del Treball, Josep Sánchez Llibre, who represented the most moderate voice in an executive committee with the majority of actors claiming forcefulness.
Sánchez Llibre had spent the last few days talking to the president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, to convey to him his interest in focusing on economic measures and, especially, that the amnesty was not explicitly mentioned. Seeing that the purpose was within reach, he decided to attend the executive committee of the CEOE and assumed the final statement.
The employer’s position does not spare the central government criticism. He mentions “the serious undermining that these agreements can entail for the separation of powers and legal security”, and also underlines that they “directly affect the principle of equality between all Spaniards”.
From this point on, criticism focuses on economic measures, and warns that “an increasingly complicated business climate is being created, in which it is very difficult for economic growth and job creation to occur” . In addition, it adds a warning of market distortion and the deterioration of Spain’s external image.
Alarmed by the mention in the agreement between the PSOE and Junts of a plan to facilitate the return to Catalonia of the headquarters of the companies that left with the process, the employers’ union warns against any coercive measures and emphasizes the right of companies to decide where they want to develop their activity.
During the debate, the majority of employers claimed the harshness and forcefulness shown previously by judges and prosecutors. It stands out, for example, the forcefulness of the employers’ association of small companies, Cepyme, that of the self-employed, ATA, and the employers’ association of construction (CNC). The territorial organizations of Murcia, Navarre, Galicia, Andalusia, Madrid and the Basque Country also called for harshness.
In the opposite sense, it was the president of Foment, Josep Sánchez Llibre, who brought the singing voice of moderation and demanded a statement more about economic policy than about the political debate. He asked to contribute to the climate of consensus and dialogue, and to curb tension.
Sánchez Llibre even went so far as to propose that, in the coming legislature, the employers’ association may sometimes be interested in using the parliamentary support of the PNB and Junts. He considers it a window of opportunity that, in an exercise in pragmatism, can be taken advantage of.
In the end, Foment is more upset by the PSOE pact with Sumar than by what it has signed with Junts. He criticizes it precisely for what it implies in terms of reducing working hours, increasing the SMI and other measures that he considers to directly and negatively affect companies.
What was evident in the debate is a clear difference in criteria between a majority that calls for forcefulness and hard positions, while a minority, in which there is Foment, emphasizes economic and business content. At the meeting, the two approaches were presented in a clear way, without reaching a confrontation.
One of the points on which there is full agreement is in the criticism of the Central Government for what they consider a contempt for social dialogue, since decisions have been taken in labor matters without taking into account the employers. It is what they consider “a violation of the framework of labor relations and areas of consensus”.
Another point that many employers also criticized is the specific support that the new central government will grant to Conpymes, which they consider is already treating it as a social interlocutor. This is a long battle for representativeness in collective bargaining that both CEOE and Cepyme will raise thoroughly to maintain their current position. And the intentions of the new Spanish Executive in this area also worry them.
The statement also calls for a return to consensus between the two major political forces, something that seems more than impossible in the current climate. Specifically, what is being proposed is “asking for a return to the great political and social consensus and moderation, embodied in our Constitution”.
On the other hand, the CEOE points out that it will also defend the constitutional principles in the European instances, through BusinessEurope. The objective “must be to preserve social peace and coexistence among all Spaniards within the constitutional margins”.
For its part, the Spanish Government in office yesterday morning, before the executive committee of the CEOE, recommended to the employer “to move away from ideological proclamations”. These are the statements of the Secretary of State for Employment, Joaquín Pérez Rey, who declared himself surprised that the CEOE had convened the executive committee, and affirmed that “I encourage them to continue working for the good of their country, to leave of ideological proclamations and that they dedicate themselves to what they know how to do, which is to negotiate the most appropriate measures to improve the labor market”.
Likewise, yesterday the second vice-president and Acting Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, announced that the first measure the coalition Government will take will be to raise the SMI: “We will immediately call the social workers to continue raising the interprofessional minimum wage and that it meets the needs of our society”, affirmed Díaz. It will be a new element that the CEOE will understand as a break in the social dialogue, and an increase that, predictably, will go ahead with the sole support of the unions.
