The Spanish parliament has ratified labour reforms designed to tackle the country’s economic woes and bring down the high unemployment, currently standing at 20% of the working population.
Only members of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s Socialist Party voted in favour of the labour reforms, the two biggest opposition parties, the Popular Party (PP) and Catalan nationalist party (CIU), abstained and eight deputies voted against the moves.
In addition, Spain’s two main unions have called a general strike on September 29th in protest at the tough economic measures.
Measures include promoting youth employment and cutting the cost of firing workers, something which makes employers reluctant to hire more staff and encourages the use of temporary contracts that have few benefits and rights.
Workers on full contracts are entitled to severance pay of as much as 45 days per year worked, one of the highest levels in Europe, but under the new reforms this would be cut to 33 days for some contracts
Changes to the labour law follow spending cuts introduced last month in a bid to cut the large budget deficit.