With the election call, it was taken for granted that the scholarship statute, intended to regulate the conditions of students in internships and avoid potential fraud, would be paralyzed and would be renegotiated for the next legislature. After a year of negotiations, with moments that bordered on consensus, the project seemed doomed.
The disparity of positions was seen. The CEOE, always reluctant to this regulation, celebrated the occasion to bury it, with its president, Antonio Garamendi, who affirmed that “we would not look favorably on issuing laws when the Courts are dissolved”. On the other hand, the general secretary of the UGT, Pepe Ãlvarez, replied on Wednesday that “scholars have no reason to wait for the CEOE or to wait any longer”.
At that time, the latest proposal from the Ministry of Labor was already circulating, which has allowed the pre-agreement that both parties, the ministry and the unions, obtained yesterday. The CEOE is left out. In reality, when the last document arrived at the employers’ office, they didn’t even consider formulating observations.
In the pact, there is still some open point, but minor, and it is taken for granted that it will go ahead. When it is definitively closed, it will predictably be a decree-law, which will have to go through the permanent delegation of Congress, where the Spanish Government will have to make sure it has enough support.
Shortly after the news of the pact leaked, both the Ministry of Labor and the unions acknowledged that the agreement is practically done. At the ministry, they talked about finalizing an agreement that responds to the objectives set, “such as the definition of the limits of practices, without equivocation to avoid niches of labor fraud”. On behalf of CC.OO., the Secretary of Youth, Adrià Junyent, said that “we are very close to an agreement, although there are still some small aspects to close”, and the UGT spoke of an imminent agreement which “will collect a large part of the union’s demands, such as the clear definition of the practices to avoid fraud, the compensation of expenses or the establishment of an effective dissuasive sanction regime”.
The agreement regulates the rights of students doing non-work placements, and establishes both the tutoring and the conditions in which it would be carried out as well as the compensation of expenses and the prohibition of demanding payment or no compensation. Extracurricular practices are also limited, considered by the unions to be an easy way for fraud, and a regime of sanctions that can reach up to 225,000 euros is incorporated.
With regard to the limitation of extracurricular practices, it is specified that those carried out during official undergraduate, master’s or university doctorate studies cannot exceed a maximum of 480 hours. In addition, a second limit is added: that the sum of curricular and extracurricular practices does not exceed 25% of the ECTS credits of the corresponding degree. However, degrees with a minimum duration of 60 ECTS credits may establish three-month internships.
In the negotiations of the last week, the section on fines has been expanded, including sanctions for discrimination during practices which, in the most serious cases, can reach 225,000 euros. This is direct or indirect discrimination, “due to age or disability (…), due to circumstances of sex, origin, including racial or ethnic”, as well as “unfavorable treatment of workers as a reaction to a claim made to the company”. The penalty ranges between 7,500 and 225,000 euros.
In previous drafts, penalties of up to 7,500 euros were also foreseen in cases where the student is forced to pay a consideration to have access to the practice, and also if they are not compensated for travel expenses.
