The businesswoman Virgina Guinda jumped into the arena of the elections for the CEOE presidency when nobody expected it and the current person in charge, Antonio Garamendi, was already planning to repeat his mandate by acclamation, with no rival in sight. It was a last-minute decision and just five days before the employers’ Electoral Assembly, Guinda multiplies the acts to seek support.
Today he has done so through an online meeting in which he has sought to contact the electors and members of the CEOE, in the course of which he has outlined his program based on three fundamental points: new temporary contracts, a more participative and a defense of the figure of the businessman, which he considers reviled by the Government.
One of the outstanding points that it claims are changes in the labor framework, specifically, defining new temporary contracts that provide competitiveness to seasonal businesses that now, with almost unique hiring in the current labor framework, lose competitiveness. The Spanish regulatory framework is “one of the most interventionist in the European Union” has stated the vice president of Foment del Treball and I believe that there are sectors that are being “penalized” by not having new accounting figures, and that are forced to overcontract due to lack of contracts that suit their specific situation.
With this approach, he makes a difference with the current president, Antonio Garamendi, who led the CEOE’s support for the labor reform, which is the norm that has established the new forms of contracting, with a drastic limitation of temporary figures. A support for the labor reform that, let us remember, was not unanimous. There were four notable abstentions, among which was that of Foment del Treball.
It can also be read as an implicit criticism of Garamendi his proposal for a more shared governance model for employers, “more active listening, participation from the bottom up.” He calls for more involvement of sectoral and territorial employers and more transparency in government standards. It is a significant message given that critics of Garamendi tend to reproach him for a personalist direction, not very open and that leaves little room for organizations in both the sector and territory.
In what may be closest to Garamendi is in criticizing the Government for insulting the figure of the businessman. “We are often witnessing attitudes from the Government that, from my point of view, are unacceptable and untimely, regarding the figure that all of us represent and the value that companies and entrepreneurs develop”, said Virginia Guinda. In this sense, he proposes a campaign to claim the figure of the businessman to “place our figure in balance and not as it happens now. In no developed economy are entrepreneurs treated the way we are treated.”
