西班牙人力資源管理和經濟比較

 

當前的經濟危機表明，在歐洲每一個經濟都有其長處和短處。仔細看看不同的國家，途徑歐洲聯盟（歐盟）的其他成員處理人力資源管理導致經濟危機產生不同的影響。

 

西班牙在很多方面與其他歐洲國家不同。作為一個引子，它是最后一個在西歐采取民主的國家。即使在今天，西班牙大部分是以農業為主。大部分行業都集中在巴塞羅那的東海岸城市周圍。此外， 1986年前西班牙加入歐洲共同體（歐共體）。在這個過程中，西班牙打開了外國直接投資和國際競爭力的大門。雖然這導致了經濟繁榮，但是社會的發展不能跟上經濟的發展[1]。所有這些事件嚴重影響了人力資源的情況，這些將在本文中詳細介紹。

 

在第二章中引進后，將會有關于他們國家的信息，如人力資源，工會和雇主組織的西班牙現狀的說明。

 

Comparative Human Resource Management And Economy In Spain Economics Essay

 

The current economic crisis has shown that every economy in Europe has its strengths and weaknesses. A closer look at the different countries reveals that the ways the different member of the European Union (EU) handle human resource management lead to different impacts of the crisis on the economies.

 

Spain is in many ways different than the other European Countries. As an introduction, it was the last country in Western Europe to adopt a democracy. Even today large parts of Spain are agrarian-oriented. Most of the industry is concentrated at the Eastern coast around the city of Barcelona. Furthermore, it was not before 1986 that Spain joined the European Community (EC). During this course, Spain opened up to foreign direct investment and international competition. Although this led to an economic boom, the social development could not keep up with the economic development [1] . All these events influenced the situation of human resources heavily and will be outlined in detail in this paper.

 

After the introduction, in chapter two, there will be a description of Spain with respect to their country information, the current situation of human resources, trade unions and employers’ organizations. Afterwards in chapter three, the paper will define the industrial relations of Spain and in particular the collective bargaining with its corresponding gender equality as well as the employee rights, the pay developments and the working time within the country. Following, in chapter four, the most important human resource developments in Spain will be described in greater detail, including the labor market dualization and the ongoing fight against unemployment. Finally, there will be a conclusion and an outlook for the country Spain with respect to the developments in the field of human resources and the overall economy.

 

Spain

 

Country Information

 

Spain comprises 504,750 square kilometers and represents a population of 46.2 million as of 2009. The national language is Spanish and the capital is Madrid [2] . Since January 1st, 1986, Spain is part of the European Union and adopted the Euro on January 1st, 2002. The Spanish economic structure is distinctly rural but its population is mainly concentrated in the metropolitan areas around the bigger cities such as Madrid and Barcelona and their outlying areas. Nevertheless, the average density of inhabitants per square kilometer is one of the lowest in the European Union. Like in almost all European Union countries Spanish women also outnumber Spanish men. The overall Spanish population is relatively young compared to other countries of the EU. Furthermore, Spain represents a democracy with the highest representation of the Spanish royal family [3] .

 

The Spanish economy used to have one of the highest growth rates in the European Union driven by high domestic consumption and the construction sector. This changed after the EU enlargement in 2004. Afterwards, Spain showed a slowdown in their economic achievements. Furthermore, the economic crisis also influenced the performance since Spain has always been highly dependent on foreign debt. This led to heavy effects on the labor market, which will be described in greater detail in the following chapters [4] .

 

Human Resources

 

As already mentioned, Spain has always been among the leading performers since they joined the European Union. However, employment permanently represented an exception. Since the late 1970s, Spain suffers from an employment crisis. This is shown by the highest levels of unemployment in the EU, the lowest participation rate (53.9% of the working-age population in 2001), and the worst long-term joblessness levels. Even though, the unemployment rate fluctuates along with the economic cycle, it has always been high with an average of 12% recorded during the decade after Franco’s death and reached the highest level of 24% in 1994 [5] . In 2008, an unemployment rate of 11.3% was still significantly above the rate of the 27 European Union member states (EU27) with 7.1%.

 

In 2007, Spain showed an employment rate of 65.6%, which is on the average of the EU27. The female employment rate in Spain with 54.7% is slightly below the average of 58.3% in the EU. Furthermore, the gross annual earnings (21,150.23 €) and the average monthly labor costs (2,279 €) are below the European Union average (28,992 € and 2,981 €). For further information see appendix 1.

 

Due to the changes in the Spanish economy, the labor market has changed severely. The changes have not been foreseen by the government and their social partners to this extend and exceeded their forecasts tremendously. Overall, in the first quarter of 2009, the unemployment rates of 17.36% again showed one of the worst figures in the EU. This led to huge discussions among the social partners about pay agreements and employment protection measures [6] .

 

Trade Unions

 

In general, trade unions are permanent organizations for the purpose of promoting work-related interests and are formed by employees or public servants. In Spain, trade unions are common as formation of self-employed and small entrepreneurs working in the agriculture sector. Originally, trade unions were introduced in the past in Spain as resistance groups to cope with specific employer practices by forming spontaneous or transitory groupings, so called ‘coalitions’ (coalición or coligación) or in the form of mutual assistance as well as mutual protection bodies [7] . Afterwards, trade unions in Spain “took the shape of a kind of occupational association and, occasionally, occupational ‘corporation’, depending on the legal context and the degree of government intervention in industrial relations” [8] . Today, trade unions usually have the form of occupational associations shaped by the special nature of their aims, which are to promote social and economic interests, as well as by their methods, meaning their trade union activities [9] .

 

Trade unions traditionally played a minor role in the Spanish work environment and represented one of the lowest rates of trade union memberships within the European Union until 2004. Although the wage-earning population increased, there has not been an enhancement in the trade union density. Spain has only two important national trade unions, which are: the Trade Union Confederation of Workers’ Commissions (Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras, CCOO) and the General Workers’ Confederation (Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT) [10] . The union membership in Spain reached its peak around 1977/78, achieving a density in manufacturing of 40-45% of the working population [11] . Today, both organizations together comprise over 70% of all trade union memberships in Spain. Overall, only 17% of all Spanish employees are member of a trade union as of 2007 [12] .

 

Employers’ Organizations

 

Spain possesses two employers’ organizations, which are considered representative at national level due to the fact that they employ at least 10% of all workers at each level of bargaining. These organizations are: the Spanish Confederation of Employers’ Organizations (Confederación Espa?ola de Organizaciones Empresariales, CEOE) and the Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Entreprises (Confederación Espa?ola de la Peque?a y Mediana Empresa, CEPYME) [13] .

 

The CEOE represents the most important employers’ organization in Spain since it encompasses large and small, foreign and national, public and private firms likewise. It was founded in 1977 and later established a near monopoly position regarding its representation. Today, it is structured as a combination of territorial and sectoral bodies, which connects the economic functions of trade associations with the industrial relations role of employers’ associations [14] . Altogether, the members of CEOE represent more than a million enterprises, which engage 75% of the working population. According to Eurofound: “It is undoubtedly the most established and representative employers' organization in Spain and, as such, signs the majority of collective agreements and usually represents employers before the authorities and trade unions“ [15] . The organization is engaged with labor and economic issues [16] .

 

Due to the fact that Spain experienced a growth in the presence of regional governments, employers’ organizations have been highly decentralized. Furthermore, the autonomous communities within the country require an increased attention for employer actions [17] . However, research has shown that Spanish employers’ organizations have high political power and thus great influence on the leaders of their social partners, meaning trade unions and the government, but little influence on their own members regarding their disciplinary [18] .

 

Industrial Relations

 

Collective Bargaining

 

Collective bargaining has always played an important role in the Spanish history. “In 1980, around 6 million employees were covered by collective bargaining; by 1994, some 7.5 million workers were covered by over 4,500 collective agreements applying to 951,000 companies” [19] (see Appendix 2). Statistics have shown that the process of collective bargaining in Spain has always been very centralized. Not only the majority of workers have been covered by higher-level agreements, also the process of bargaining has been directed from the head offices of employers’ organizations and trade union confederations [20] . This is a consequence of the Franco regime, when labor conditions were bargained in ‘vertical unions’ representing both workers and employers but with the government as the final decision stage [21] .

 

Collective agreements are very important in Spain and are even associated with and treated like Spanish law since they affect all workers and companies included in the level of agreement. Furthermore, there are the provincial sectoral agreements which concern half of the workers covered by collective bargaining and the national agreements, which affect about a quarter.

 

The structure of collective bargaining has not changed considerably over the last years. Nevertheless, since 2005, Spain recorded an increasing number of company agreements and an increase in the coverage of national sectoral agreements. In contrast, the provincial sectoral agreements experienced a drop. Overall, there is a tendency towards rationalization of the bargaining structure following a decentralized model of organization.

 

The Multi-Sector Agreement for Collective Bargaining, the Acuerdo Interconfederal para la Negociación Colectiva (AINC), established in 2002, plays an important role in the context of collective bargaining, pay agreements and employment protection. Due to the economic problems in Spain caused by the economic crisis, the AINC became subject to numerous discussions and a renewal of the agreement for 2009 could not be asserted. Nevertheless, the content of collective bargaining does also imply an increasing extend of subjects such as the control of temporary recruitment, the prevention of occupational risks and the promotion of gender equality at work [22] . Some of these aspects, which are covered in the AINC, will be described in the following.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

Gender Equality

 

In 2006, the average wage of women was 73.7% of men’s average wage. Spanish men earned on average 22,051 euros per year as compared to 16,245 euros salary of women [23] .

 

The topic of gender equality of men and women has gained greater importance in 2007 with the equality law. This has also been seen in the 2007 AINC, where the social partners underlined their contribution of collective bargaining to the promotion of greater equality at work. The agreement was further extended in 2008 with a focus on the development and application of equality plans in companies and measures to facilitate a work-life balance. The equality law is in line with the collective agreements in the past seen before the law came into place. This is due to the fact that most sectoral agreements concerning equality plans in companies with more than 250 employees always had to negotiate their plans [24] .

 

Nevertheless, a difference between men and women still exists but it is difficult to define the causes of these differences [25] .

 

Employee Rights

 

In case of collective disputes between employers and workers, an agreement between the parties or mediation or arbitration by a labor inspectorate or another independent body can be implemented. However, both parties of the dispute must accept the solution. At the different levels of action there are divergent bodies, such as the Multi-sector Mediation and Arbitration Service for the national level. This body tries to resolve the disputes out of court.

 

The importance and activity of such bodies has increased in the last 10 years and solve most of the labor disputes today [26] .

 

Pay Developments

 

After an increase in the total labor cost in 2007 by 4% a Spanish worker owns 2,271.88 euro per month. With regard to collective bargaining and the according AINC, Spain showed a stable trend for agreed pay increases since 2000, which ranks from 3% to 3.5%. After a wage revision clause it even ranges from 3.6% to 4%. Nevertheless, especially at higher levels, there are also the highest pay rises. Furthermore, large companies also provide their employees with higher pay than the agreed levels.

 

Spain as several other countries also shows a gender pay gap. Overall, the annual income of woman was 30% lower in 2009 than the annual income of men as already mentioned under gender equality. This is mainly due to fact that most working women are to be found in the lowest paid sectors and jobs. The labor market participation rate of Spanish women increased primarily within unskilled work, because of a high level of temporary employment, part-time work and staff turnover [27] .

 

Working Time

 

In 2007, Spain recorded an average working time of 1,747.4 hours a year, which equals 38.2 hours a week. Multi-company agreements show a tendency towards longer working hours, but company agreements for host companies reduced the agreed working time in the last years greatly, which resulted in a progressive widening of the gap between agreed working time at company level and at higher bargaining level. Overall, there is an increase in the flexible distribution of working times for a number of agreements over the last years. It was in 2007 that already 20% of the agreements and thus 49.2% of the workers experienced such a development. In collective agreements flexible working times, such as working days longer and taking those accumulated hours off, play a less important role, concerning 18.9% of the workers and accumulated time off of 17.3% [28] .

 

Furthermore, it is to mention that Spain and also Portugal, Greece and Italy as southern European countries, show a very low rate of part-time employment for married women. This then leads to long working hours for men, since they need to support their families [29] .

 

Human Resource Developments in Spain

 

Labor Market Dualization

 

Spain shows a significant segmentation of Spanish workers. On the one hand, there are the ‘insiders’, which posses a permanent working contract and thus can trust in a stable and secure, long-term employment relationship. On the other hand, there are the ‘outsiders’, who only receive temporary contracts or are even unemployed or move between those two situations. The temporary contracts imply significant lower costs than permanent contracts. This leads to a two-tier system in employment relations and may even result in wage discrimination against ‘outsiders’. ‘Outsiders’ are less likely to receive wage-related benefits, such as bonuses or incentives. Furthermore, they very often earn lower wages than ’insiders’, who benefit from collective agreements between unions and employers. Also, ‘outsiders’ do not get as many welfare benefits as ‘insiders’. In particular, they are not entitled to unemployment insurances [30] . Since ‘outsiders’ can be easily laid of, “they suffer harsher working conditions in terms of hours, pace of work, supervision, and productivity demands” [31] .

 

The idea behind the two-tier system was to enlarge the volatility of employment by increasing the hiring and layoff rates as well as achieving an increase in workers’ turnover and job reallocation. Besides the job tenure should be reduced. Finally, the combination of low unemployment duration and high turnover rates should positively affect the unemployment rate [32] . Since “higher workers’ turnover implies a decrease of unemployment duration and therefore reduces long-term unemployment” [33] .

 

Before 1984, fixed-term employment contracts (FTCs) were only allowed in the areas of seasonal or temporary activities [34] . Lately, the dual labor-market situation in Spain looked as followed: In 2001 one-third of the employees had flexible short-term employment contracts with low payments and low protection and two-thirds hold a permanent contract with high employment protection. It was a result of the consequence of the high unemployment rate in 1984 of 20.1%, when the Spanish government liberalized FTCs, which imply lower firing costs than the traditional permanent employment contracts [35] . The reform allowed the use of FTCs outside of seasonal activities and thus triggered a rapid spread to non-seasonal jobs [36] . This led to a fast growth in the number of temporary employees with a rate of more than 30% from 1990 on (see appendix 3). More than 90% of new hires were FTCs or other temporary contracts [37] . The contracts found massive utility in almost all types of jobs and sectors of the economy [38] . Research has shown that FTCs are more applied to women than to men [39] . However, the unemployment rate still remained on the same level as before the introduction. The Spanish labor market recorded high rates of gross job creation but only a small amount of permanent employment situations due to the fact that most of the FTCs did not convert into a permanent contract [40] .

 

Spain once represented a fairly regulated market with high release costs and high unions’ bargaining power and developed into a dual labor market with high figures of permanent employees (in 2001 around 68% of all employees) enjoying high protection and high bargaining power but around 32% of temporary employees in 2001 suffering from high turnover rates, low job tenure, and low wages [41] .

 

With regard to high unemployment rates, the labor market dualization had mixed influences. On the one side the lower firing costs associated with the FTCs contributed to an employment growth, but on the other side it resulted in lower investments in human capital, higher wage pressure, lower labor mobility and larger wage dispersion [42] . However, even though recent labor market reforms had reduced the firing costs under permanent contracts and restricted the use of temporary contracts, the rate of temporary employment remained high, which leads to a paradox regarding the remaining high unemployment and a great field of research on this topic [43] .

 

Fighting Unemployment

 

As already mentioned, Spain always suffered from high unemployment rates and still shows one of the highest rates of all EU member states. From the early 1980s on, Spain recorded an unemployment rate, which has been much higher compared to other European countries [44] . However, the most obvious question is why Spain records such high rates even though the figures fluctuate very highly as seen in appendix 4. “Over the last quarter century, the Spanish unemployment rate has gone from 3.5 per cent to 24 per cent of the labor force, and then back to 13 per cent” [45] as of 2003. In detail, it can be observed that Spain was able to keep its unemployment rate relatively low, under 3%, in the 1960s, but went through a huge jump from 1975 on to a level of 21% in 1985/1986. Afterwards, Spain showed a recovery of its economy, which also positively influenced the unemployment rates, so that it decreased to 16% in 1991. Unfortunately, afterwards the rate rose very quickly to the highest point of 24% in 1994 [46] . The changes in the unemployment rate are probably connected to changes in demand and supply of respective population groups. Traditionally, demand is influenced by skill biased technological progress and international trade, as well as by macroeconomic variations. In the case of Spain, the reasons are mainly to be found in the respective labor supply. For example, Spain experienced the baby boom later than the EU4 (France, Germany, Italy, and the UK) [47] . Furthermore, Spain‘s transition from an agriculture-based to an industrial and service-based economy was very late compared to the rest of Europe. This led to the effect that the other countries already benefited from the absorption of the surplus labor of the agricultural sector, while Spain was still in the phase of absorbing it (see appendix 5). Besides, Spain always suffered from emigration [48] , which is a result from the economic development of central Europe and their increase demand for experience industrial worker. The free circulation of workers [49] made it possible that the Spanish surplus labor first escaped to central and South America and later to western and central Europe. However, during the economic crisis in 1970 the Spanish worker came back home and thus even increased the rate of unemployment [50] .

 

The macroeconomic events, as stated earlier, also had a huge influence on the development of the unemployment rate in Spain. Resulting from the dictatorship of Franco (1939-75) the labor market was highly regulated with a prohibition of unions, strikes and lockouts and the government as determinant of labor conditions. After this time, in 1976, Spain decided on democratization and decentralization. This led to an increase in the unemployment rate followed by a boom from 1986-90, when Spain joined the European Community in 1986. Later in 1997 Spain wanted to fulfill the Maastricht Treaty conditions for the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and thus implemented a labor market reform, which fostered wage and price moderation [51] .

 

Overall, it can be stated that Spain “chose a set of labor market institutions conducive to high unemployment, in particular unemployment benefits and employment protection” [52] , which led to a rise in unemployment from 1975 to 1995. Later on, the deregulation of fixed-term contracts and thus the decrease of firing costs even aggravated the situation [53] . Nevertheless, it can be argued that it is not fully understandable why a deregulation and reduction of real labor costs since the mid-1980s led to an increase in unemployment, especially because the labor costs were already among the lowest levels in the EU. However, it can be reasoned with the specific features of the Spanish labor market, including flexibility for dismissal and redundancy, the generosity of unemployment compensation system, and the loosely coordinated system of wage bargaining [54] .

 

In 1984, the Spanish labor market became more flexible due to the fact that it was believed that the reason for the high rate of unemployment was the high cost of dismissal through redundancy payments. Therefore, as already described in the previous section, the government introduced the facilitation of hiring on a fixed-term base and allowed short-term contracts. “This liberalization of the contract law had a fast and deep impact on the structure of the Spanish labor market: 10 years later, 35% of the waged and salaried workers had fixed-term contracts, compared to around 12% before the reform” [55] . The change seems to be welcomed by the Spanish companies, which adopted the new way of hiring people and thus made a standard indefinite contract a rare occurrence. In 1996 only 4% of 8.6 million signed contracts were indefinite. However, temporary contracts became a standard way and also short durations were established. As appendix 6 shows, 30% of the contracts in 2000 covered one month or less. As a result, it must be mentioned that the idea of freeing the labor market by deregulating the entry for workers into the company has been counterproductive. Spain traded off higher employment in times of economic expansion for growing insecurity, lower productivity, reduced job safety, and higher employment loss in case of an economic recession. Also, in the end Spain was not able to reduce the unemployment rate [56] .#p#分頁標題#e#

 

The easing of temporary contracts in Spain is probably one of the big factors that led to the high rates of unemployment. Nevertheless, this cannot be the only source. It is more likely that the reasons are a combination of the late process of deruralization of the Spanish economy, the lack of rational political institutions, the influence of demographic shifts, and the flexibilization of the Spanish labor force [57] .

 

Conclusion and Outlook

 

As already mentioned in the introduction, the history of Spain highly affected the employment situation and still has huge influence today. The biggest problem, Spain has to cope with, is obviously the country’s high unemployment rate. The latest figures from April 2010 showed that Spain has outreached the unemployment level of 20%, meaning that 4.3 million people have no work [58] . This level is the highest since the last 13 years [59] . Furthermore, the level for youth is even higher and shows numbers of up to 40% [60] . With this, Spain demonstrates the second largest unemployment rate after Latvia, according to Eurostat [61] and the largest in the eurozone [62] . Even though the Spanish Prime Minister stated that the unemployment has hit its highest point and will decline in future, the forecasts do not look as optimistic [63] .

 

The credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s already downgraded the Spanish government debt, April 2010, because the country’s economic outlook shows a shrinking trend [64] . Economists fear that Spain could follow Greece and be the next European country getting close to bankruptcy. Unfortunately, Spain plays a more important role in the EU compared to Greece with respect to the gross domestic product (GDP), since they make up one-tenth of Europe’s GDP. In case of a downfall of Spain, other countries such as Germany or France would not be able to provide sufficient resources to rescue the country as they did with Greece [65] .

 

Overall, it can be said that Spain faces several economic and human resource problems, which are additionally correlated. Furthermore, there is the worldwide economic crisis that also affects not only the Spanish economy itself but also has influence on the ongoing situation of high unemployment rates. Spain’s efforts to solve their economic situation failed and planned consequences do not look very successful. Also, the country’s reforms and changes within the human resource sector in the past did not have the desirable effects. It seems as if the country needs to over think its methods and ways of handling their problems.

 

Resources

 

Bentolila, Samuel; Jimeno, Juan, F. (2003): Spanish Unemployment: The End of the Wild Ride? CESifo Working Paper No. 940. Category 4: Labour Markets. May 2003#p#分頁標題#e#

 

Bormeo, Nancy G. (2001): Unemployment in the New Europe. Cambridge University Press

 

Brunstein, Ingrid (1995): Human Resource Management in Western Europe. Walter de Gryter & Co. Berlin

 

Dolado, Juan, J.; Gracía-Serrano, Carlos; Jimeno, Juan, F. (2001): Drawing Lessons from the Boom of Temporary Jobs in Spain. Fundación de Estudios de Economía Aplicada. July 2001

 

Ferner, Anthony; Hyman, Richard (1998): Changing Industrial Relations in Europe. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, second edition

 

Golden, Lonnie; Figart, Deborah M. (2001): Working Time – International trends, theory and politics perspectives. Routledge, London

 

Güell, Maia; Petrongolo, Barbara (2001): Worker transition from temporary to permanent employment: the Spanish case. London School of Economics. March 2001

 

Harrison, Josepgh; Corkill, David (2008): Spain: A Modern European Economy. Ashgate Publishing Limited. 21. February 2009

 

Howell, David R. (2005): Fighting Unemployment: The Limits of Free Market Orthodoxy. Oxford University Press. New York

 

Kirby, Jason; Hawaleshka, Danylo (2010): Europe gets greeced. Maclean’s, Vol. 123, Issue 18, p. 34-36, 17.05.2010