The new methodology released today by the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy shows that 92% of workers who have the right to be covered by an agreement are effectively so. There are a total of 14 million workers located under the umbrella of collective agreements, while approximately one million are those who would be left out.
According to these data, the percentage of this collective bargaining coverage rate has been increasing progressively over the last three years, going from 91.2% in 2021, to 91.5% in 2022 and finally to 91.8% last year. . When analyzing the data, a higher percentage of coverage is clearly perceived among men (95% in 2023), while that of women is far behind (88.2%). One of the factors that explains this large gap is the lack of agreements between domestic workers.
“These are data that demonstrate that the collective bargaining system has great capacity. A good part of the employment relationship carried out through collective bargaining has an impact on people’s lives,” said the Secretary of State for Employment, Joaquín Pérez Rey.
In total, there are 21 million members in Spain, but not all of them can be covered by a collective agreement. Civil servants, the self-employed and other groups such as worker members of cooperatives and social collaboration work, among others, must be excluded. In this way, it is estimated that the potential beneficiaries of the coverage of the agreements would be around 15 million, of which 14 million would be included in this situation.
This 92% coverage rate contrasts with the 80% usually recorded by OECD data. The Ministry of Labor affirms that the new system used is much more reliable and accurate. While the previous one is based on the information provided by the negotiators of the agreements, “it is almost an estimate” they point out in Labor, the new mechanism is based on precise and dynamic data, with a monthly evaluation of the variations. It is a mechanism that they consider will allow an improvement in the labor market because it will provide much more up-to-date and detailed information on the agreements to the social agents, so that they can evaluate the impact that what they are negotiating will have when they sit at the agreement tables. collectives.
Going into the detail of the new data, there is greater coverage in construction and industry in which the percentage is around 98%, while agriculture follows at a certain distance and even further, services. The difference between men and women is especially evident in domestic workers, without any coverage, while in activities with more coverage, such as hospitality, construction, financial activity and industry, the gender gap is small.
By autonomous communities, Murcia, Catalunya, Aragón and Madrid are the ones with the highest rates, with differences however between men and women, while at the other extreme, the very low coverage of the Basque Country and Navarra stands out. One of the explanations for these low percentages is the presence of cooperatives in these two communities.
