The frailty of collective agreements after the 2012 spanish employment law reform

Abstract

Collective agreements channel social conflict by encouraging the establishment of an ongoing dialogue between employees and employers. Although both the right to collective labour bargaining and the enforceability of collective agreements are enshrined in the Spanish constitution, the way these principles operate in practice depends to a great extent on the current ordinary legal framework. The 2012 labour reform brought about significant changes in the Spanish collective bargaining system. It recognised the unilateral faculty of the employer to modify collective agreements of limited scope, the possibility to set aside certain terms of universally applicable collective agreements and the unavoidable preeminence of company collective agreements over sectoral collective agreements. This study not only does purport to analyse the impact of the aforementioned legal reform but also attempts to elucidate whether the current statutory framework does allow collective agreements to safeguard the constitutional values these legal institutions have been entrusted with.