Notes on labour reform and proposals for the future

Abstract

Given the serious decline in employment that we have seen in the past few years, it seems necessary to adopt urgent measures that would contribute to a growth in employment and would immediately stop the chronic problem of unemployment in Spain. Labour reform legislation, despite having responded in the past to the economic necessities in each moment, has shown itself to be insufficient in helping the Spanish economy in its current critical state. Such measures ought to be structural and the latest labour reform approved by the Spanish legislator has attempted to establish innovative and profound bases in order to stop the drain on our labour market and to create a new labour relations scenario. The reform has focused on facilitating hiring on a permanent basis, promoting new employment agencies, and profound changes in the modification of labour conditions when companies are faced with difficult situations. Finally, it has attempted a complete turn-around of our system of collective negotiation, which until now has been clearly antiquated.