- CRL President Tomás Arrieta believes that temporary employment regulation dossiers to "protect employment" should be extended from September onwards and that workers should take on "temporary wage reductions".
The President of the Labor Relations Council (CRL), Tomás Arrieta, stated in an interview in Euskadi Radio that the pandemic affects "very significantly" the whole economy. It has advocated the need to adopt "exceptional measures" that have a negative effect on the workforce, but "bearing the consequences". In addition, it has recommended that workers "think about temporary wage cuts" with the aim of "protecting employment". On the contrary, it has recommended a "delay in the tax burden" for companies.
The president of the CRL has been in favour of extending MTE because it is a "very effective" tool to give companies the flexibility they need and the flexibility they need. Arrieta added that the main concern is that the TEU should be truncated immediately and that collective redundancies should occur.
In Arrieta's words, in a "so new" situation, one has to be "hopeful and proactive", and in this sense, ABEE believes that they must be complemented by "other actions" that have to be implemented in companies. Specifically, it has indicated that the way of working should be "changed", in reference to teleworking, which has come to "stop", and has called for a "clearer regulation" of it.
Collective agreement
On the situation of collective bargaining, he said that the comparison of agreements is "bad" because COVID-19 "paralysed much of the collective bargaining". Consequently, the process of renewing the conventions has been "very small, it has barely reached 3%". However, he considers that he is not entirely wrong, as “in previous years the domestic tasks were performed”, with regard to collective agreements in force and in updated conditions.
"That means that at this time in the Basque Country one in every two employees has a collective agreement in force," he added. In qualitative terms, however, he did not mention what measures have been implemented in these collective agreements, nor in what situation do the conditions of workers leave in relation to the consumer price index and other criteria related to labour rights.