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Human Resources

Human Resources

The economic crisis that affected the global economy in 2009 was particularly severe in Spain, where the GDP contracted by 3.1%. This difficult situation was directly reflected in the destruction of employment.

The unemployment rate in Spain rose from 13.91% in the last quarter of 2008 to 18.83% in the same period in 2009, and the number of unemployed in December reached 3,923,603.

These circumstances led the Government to adopt various measures designed to ensure coverage of unemployed workers, to try to slowdown job destruction, to maintain the existing level of employment, and to promote the generation of new jobs. The first decision, taken in March 2009, was to approve Royal Decree-Law 2/2009 on urgent measures to maintain and foment employment and the protection of unemployed people. This legislation mainly addressed new regulations regarding Layoff Schemes, the postponement of and reduction in Social Security payments in certain cases, activities to encourage part-time work and to reinforce The Spanish National Employment Service (Servicio Público de EMPLOYMENT Estatal, SPPE).

In August 2009, the Government also approved the “Temporary Employment Protection and Insertion Program” (Programa Temporal de Protección de EMPLOYMENT e Inserción, PRODI), which established a monthly payment of €420 for those people who had exhausted their contribution-based unemployment benefit from 1st January 2009, were no longer entitled to it and had no other income amounting to more than 75% of the minimum inter-professional salary, as well as those other unemployed who had exhausted their period of entitlement, including any extensions, to such financial support.

In these difficult economic circumstances, companies have been forced to implement measures to try to adapt their fixed costs to the drastic fall in demand in order to ensure their future survival. The measure most widely used in the various sub-sectors in Spain in 2009 to achieve some flexibility in the workforce was to submit Layoff Schemes, mainly of a temporary nature, to the labour authorities. Towards the end of the year the number of workers affected by this measure was four times higher than in 2008. Of the layoff plans submitted, 68.49% referred to the suspension of employment, i.e. temporary layoffs, and 20.53%2 were for the definitive termination of employment.

The steel companies have not been immune to the problems of other sectors and, in order to cope with the reduction of the order books, together with the increases in the costs of energy, among others, they were forced to submit Layoff Plans (ERE) in order to adjust their costs to the fall in the demand for their products.

We should mention that all the Layoff Plans implemented by our industry during the year were temporary ones, i.e. for the suspension of employment, and were authorised for reasons of organisation or production. The average number of layoff days in our companies was 91 per worker compared to the average of 122 days per worker for the Total of the layoff plans implemented in Spain.

This situation continued throughout the year and, although towards the end of 2009 the recovery of the global economy was already a fact, it had not spread to The Spanish economy and most of the Temporary Layoff Plans implemented by our companies were extended, and continued in force in the first months of 2010.

The Spanish Steel Industry, including the primary processing sub-sector, directly employed 26,222 workers in 2009, being the productivity in this year of 676,4 tonnes/worker.

As usually occurs in a year marked by the economic difficulties, the situation in 2009, unlike the previous years, did not favour the achievement of agreements between the employer and trade union organisations in the area of Collective Bargaining. As a result, the Employers’ Confederation (CEOE), the SME Confederation (CEPYME), the Trade Union organisations (UGT and CC.OO.) did not sign The Interconfederal Agreement on Collective Bargaining (ANC - El Acuerdo Interconfederal para la Negociación Colectiva), which sets the guidelines and recommendations for the collective agreements under review during the period, and which these organizations had been signing regularly for several years. In some sectors, such as the metal sector, this situation led to the appearance of conflicts deriving from the collective agreement negotiations at sector and provincial levels, conflicts which were finally settled with the assistance of the “Commitment to take action regarding the collective bargaining process pending in 2009” signed by CEOE, CEPYME, UGT and CC.OO. towards the end of the year.

Also in 2009, and following the Agreement on Training and Promotion of Occupational Health and Safety in the Metal Sector reached between The Spanish Metal Sector Employers’ Confederation (CONFEMETAL) and the largest Trade Union organisations in the sector (UGT and CC.OO.), an agreement to collaborate on the issue of a Construction Workers Card (TPC) in the Metal Sector was drawn up and signed by the Construction Workers’ Foundation (Fundación Laboral de la Construcción (FLC)) and the Metal Foundation for Training, Qualification and Employment (Fundación del Metal para la Formación, Cualificación y el EMPLOYMENT (FMF)). The purpose of the agreement was to ensure the existence of a single system to certify the training received by construction site workers in the area of occupational risk prevention.