MADRID, 30 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Secretary of State for Employment and Social Economy, Joaquín Pérez Rey, believes that the Government arrives at the last May 1 of the legislature with “work at the center of the reconquest of rights”, as indicated in an interview with Europe Press.
“This legislature began on May 1 with empty streets, with people confined to their homes and with the fear of whether we were ever going to recover normality. Not only have we recovered normality, but this May 1 will be full. The workers will once again fill the streets of the cities having recovered jobs, with greater social protection and greater job stability and the highest employment situation in 15 years,” he said.
The Secretary of State has reviewed the advances of the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy in recent years, such as the ‘Rider Law’, the regulation of remote work, and, in particular, the labor reform. Pérez Rey has highlighted that this norm, agreed “hand in hand with social dialogue”, has recovered collective bargaining and rights for workers and, at the same time, has achieved “spectacular results”, with 14.35 million permanent workers , at its all-time high, a reduction in youth unemployment, and 9.5 million women working.
With this recovery of rights, plus the increase in the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI) to 1,080 euros, Pérez Rey maintains that “the Government has faithfully fulfilled its duties”, for which reason he now invites “the social partners to do their part”.
Pérez Rey defends that “it is necessary” to raise wages in Spain and urges “to do it immediately”, with an Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC), which “pushes collective agreements to avoid the effects of inflation “.
“Wages are not to blame for this crisis, but the victims. I invite and call on the social partners to reach an immediate agreement on collective bargaining to raise workers’ wages”, requested the Secretary of State.
For Pérez Rey, this legislature has been a stage of “conquest and reconquest of rights and advances in social protection” in which “the terrible cuts of the PP” in previous governments have been reversed. In addition, the regulations promoted by the Ministry headed by Yolanda Díaz have served to put Spain at the “center of the international debate” on labor matters, with debates that “were not on the agenda.”
However, the Secretary of State has admitted that “there are many things to do” and that this mandate of the coalition government has been “the first demonstration” that dogmas can be left behind and “reform things from progress”.
Among the pending tasks, Pérez Rey has cited care strategies, the rational use of working time, advancing in a new Labor Statute, more protection for the different activities employed and self-employed, or the achievement of democracy in work, so that employees participate in business decision making.
“It is a legislature in which a lot has been done and shows the hope that much more can be done and many more reforms can be added to achieve a much fairer, more sustainable horizon that completes our transitions”, assured the secretary of State.
Before the next general elections, Pérez Rey has warned that a change of political sign in the Government “would severely jeopardize the advances achieved” in the last four years and has insisted that “conquering rights is not easy”.
“They bother a lot of people, the powerful, the privileged (…). We all know what the hidden program of the ultra-right is and what they have in store for young people, with starvation wages, lower severance pay …”, he stated.
Pérez Rey is confident that Spanish citizens “will not allow” social and labor advances “to be put in danger” in the next elections, and maintains that “a coalition government, like that of this legislature, is called upon to be reissued” to “continue deepening” in the conquests.
In addition, he recalled that in this legislature there has not been “not a single general strike” because rights “have not only been expanded, but have multiplied.”
