Alejandro Godino

Economic Reforms and the Labor Market: Zapatero’s Endless Period in the Wilderness

Spain is no longer a success story and has instead become the sick man of Europe. Recent reports seem to suggest that far from being left behind the crisis is likely to produce a new and deeper recession (European Commission 2011; OECD 2010). Unemployment is increasing and it reached more than five million people, amounting to 24.5 percent of the active population, in the first semester of 2012. Most analyses conclude that 2012 and 2013 will also register negative growth and worsening labor market conditions due to the depressing effect of austerity packages and fiscal consolidation. Per capita gross domestic product (GDP) has decreased to 2002 levels, while inequalities have grown remarkably, hence challenging social cohesion in a context of declining unemployment benefits and social spending cuts. Spain missed the opportunity to overcome some of the historical problems that made the country lag behind in Europe during the 1996–2007 growth years and will face enormous difficulties in recovering a growth path and catching up with the continental and northern European countries.

La negociación colectiva como mecanismo de mejora de la productividad laboral

La negociacion colectiva puede tener un papel en la mejora de la productividad laboral a traves de diferentes mecanismos. Siendo la variable sectorial clave para entender las dinamicas de las relaciones laborales, se plantea en este articulo un analisis de cuatro sectores de la economia espanola para observar de que manera la productividad puede ser resultado de la negociacion colectiva.

La negociació col·lectiva com a mecanisme de millora de la productivitat laboral

La negociacion colectiva puede tener un papel en la mejora de la productividad laboral a traves de diferentes mecanismos. Siendo la variable sectorial clave para entender las dinamicas de las relaciones laborales, se plantea en este articulo un analisis de cuatro sectores de la economia espanola para observar de que manera la productividad puede ser resultado de la negociacion colectiva.

Collective Bargaining as a Mechanism to Improve Labor Productivity

La negociacion colectiva puede tener un papel en la mejora de la productividad laboral a traves de diferentes mecanismos. Siendo la variable sectorial clave para entender las dinamicas de las relaciones laborales, se plantea en este articulo un analisis de cuatro sectores de la economia espanola para observar de que manera la productividad puede ser resultado de la negociacion colectiva.

Out of Sight: Dimensions of Working Time in Gendered Occupations

Working time is a key aspect of the labour relationship; it is the issue in which businesses’ management of working time centrally shapes workers’ job and life quality. The relationship between work and time is gendered, and the present chapter focuses on working time in two highly feminised sectors: office cleaning and contract catering services. These are paradigmatic sectors for the flexible management of working time, because they share certain particularities regarding the social content and meaning of work. As a cleaning union representative in Spain pointed out ‘Cleaning does not exist as long as it gets done … when everything is clean it doesn’t exist; it has no value’. Cleaning and catering are regarded as complementary to the main functions carried out in workplaces such as schools, hospitals and offices, and this attitude is mirrored in the term ancillary services. Increasingly, these services are provided by specialised subcontractors. Outsourcing the services involves a transformation of the traditional relationship between employer and employees: it changes from a bilateral relationship to a triangle that involves employers, employees and clients (Grimshaw and Rubery, 2005; cf. Jaehrling et al., Chapter 9). This service triangle has a considerable impact on working time in cleaning and catering; in both sectors, the working activities are concentrated at specific times due to the requirements of customers. In the case of cleaning, this amounts to the need not to hinder the attainment of the main activity: teaching, office work, sales, etc. In the case of catering, it is due to the specific times of meals. As a consequence, atypical working hours are likely to affect the worker’s quality of life.