Pérez-Llorca’s Employment, Compensation and Benefits area held a new ‘Pérez-Llorca Labour Law Update’ session. Partners Daniel Cifuentes, Isabel Moya and Luis Enrique Fernández Pallarés, and Of Counsel Yolanda Valdeolivas attended the seminar. During the conference, the speakers discussed the main trends that will affect the labour market in the coming months and the impact of the 5th Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining signed by the Spanish Confederation of Employers’ Organisations (CEOE) and the trade union organisations.
Daniel Cifuentes began the session, and carried out a thorough analysis of the impact of international instruments on dismissal and assessed the laws suspended by the announcement of elections, such as the Families Act and the Sustainable Mobility Act. Cifuentes also examined issues relating to pay equity and transparency, with an emphasis on Directive 2023/970, which prohibits asking candidates about their pay history in their employment relationships during the hiring process. He also covered the registration of Equality Plans that companies can negotiate with ad hoc representatives in the absence of a trade union response and, as part of the Health and Safety at Work Strategy, he discussed how the Labour and Social Security Inspection Authorities’ campaigns are key to monitoring measures to prevent occupational and psychosocial risks.
Then, following the usual ‘Pérez-Llorca Labour Law Update’ session format, Isabel Moya presented the top three most significant judgments in employment law matters from recent months. Firstly, she discussed the Supreme Court ruling of 25 April 2023 on dismissals of workers’ representatives. Secondly, Moya highlighted the Supreme Court ruling of 27 April 2023 on the illegal hiring of workers and the use of temporary employment agencies. The partner concluded her contribution to the session by commenting on the Supreme Court ruling of 21 February 2023 on dismissal.
Next, Yolanda Valdeolivas summarised the key points of the 5th Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (“AENC”), which was recently signed by employers and trade unions for 2023-2025. As the Pérez-Llorca Of Counsel pointed out, the pact enhances economic stability and creates credibility, confidence and certainty for both companies and workers at a time when the labour market has been heavily affected by frenetic regulatory change and unique structural, economic and social transformations. According to Valdeolivas, the pact is “the most comprehensive and wide-ranging agreement ever signed”. She also pointed out that this agreement is binding and not normative, i.e. it does not create new obligations for companies, nor does it recognise new rights for workers.
To conclude the session, Luis Enrique Fernández Pallarés analysed the pay increase included in the agreement signed by the economic and social players. The partner noted that the various salaries and bonuses had been streamlined, warning that some of these bonuses were outdated in the current market, and that the establishment of a set of criteria not linked to the CPI would lead to objectivity in the context of variable remuneration. In the same vein, he went on to focus on instruments for internal flexibility, teleworking and digital disconnection, among other matters.