The Ministry of Labor concludes the negotiation with CEOE on the extension of death leave and the creation of two others to care for a close person who is receiving palliative care or accompany a family member undergoing euthanasia. This Thursday, the employers’ associations issued a statement in which they denounced that The Government has decided to close the talks to address these permits and advance in the detail of the text only with the unions, as did a week ago in the negotiation on the Risk Prevention Law.
The difference is that if that table accumulated 20 months of conversations, this was only the second time that the representatives of employers and unions met to address the proposal that the second vice president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, announced by surprise a month ago. “We regret that an appropriate negotiation channel was not followed.” “Business organizations cannot accept the proposal of the Ministry of Labor on permits in any of its aspects, as we already stated in a technical considerations document and improvement proposals that we sent you on November 11, in our desire to maintain a constructive dialogue,” CEOE and Cepyme expressed after this afternoon’s meeting.
The Secretary of State for Labor, Joaquín Pérez Rey, considers that the employers’ association is defending a political position and that social dialogue is hurt, which is why he has defended his obligation to govern. “How can you say no to everything by claiming exclusively that companies cannot bear any more when they have record profits, this is a political position “that has nothing to do with social dialogue, permanent obstruction to results and progress in terms of social rights,” denounced Díaz’s number two, who has reiterated that he is deeply disappointed with the representatives of the business organizations at the table.
Labor interprets that the document sent by the employers is limited to rejecting the proposed changes and wants to go a step back in the expanded permits in 2023. Business organizations have explained that the regulation approved two years ago has created great legal uncertainty, by not defining aspects such as the figure of the cohabitant, which they consider that “has generated inappropriate use of permits, contributing to the rise in absenteeism”. CEOE and Cepyme have expressed that Díaz’s proposal also did not resolve whether or not these days of leave were added to those already included in the collective agreements and questioned whether the changes were only directed at the private sector and not the public sector.
The Department of Labor sent a letter to the negotiators of CCOO, UGT, CEOE and Cepyme at the end of October in which it proposed creating a 15-day leave for family members of people in palliative care and extend the bereavement leave to 10 business days in the event of the death of the spouse, common-law partner or family members up to the second degree of consanguinity (grandparents and grandchildren). To do this, article 37 of the Workers’ Statute would be modified, which implies that the Government has to submit the changes to the vote of the Congress of Deputies and will not be able to carry them out through a regulation, as it will do with much of the risk prevention.
“Does anyone have any doubt that a two-day leave is clearly insufficient? Can two days resolve the pain of losing a family member? Does any employer understand that they can have a worker fit the day after losing a child?” The Labor representative at the negotiation table has reproached, harshly attacking the position adopted by CEOE and Cepyme. “The employers are playing politics and are playing to see if the Government falls and the employers’ association is in the midst of an electoral campaign, Garamendi must tell his people that he is a tough representative,” he added, accusing the negotiators of not transmitting sensitivity regarding the issue at the table.
The unions, for their part, have also accused the employers of refusing effective negotiation. “We do not understand how in the 21st century economic positions can continue to be expressed in situations of these characteristics that have to do with a model of society, with a way of understanding care and, above all, how we build healthy societies that are not continually feeding on stress totally promoted by money and that has nothing to do with people’s needs,” reproached the head of Trade Union Action at CCOO, Javier Pacheco, after this afternoon’s negotiation.
“I don’t understand how business organizations approach social dialogue. We are very disappointed, we ask you to reconsider your attitude“added in the same sense the vice-secretary of Trade Union Action of UGT, Fernando Luján, a few minutes later, asking that the employers put aside political interests. “If the problem is an economic issue, beyond the humanity that opposes it, tell us where they want and how to combine humanitarian measures with the march of the companies” the representative of this union has claimed.
