The parliament has ratified the labour reforms designed to bring down high unemployment. Measures include promoting youth employment and cutting the cost of firing workers. Only members of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist Party voted in favour of the labour reforms. The reforms can still be amended in parliament over the coming months. Earlier in June, tripartite talks with union confederations and employers’ organisations on the reforms ended in a deadlock, in spite of an extension of the planned deadline by a week (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 May 2010).
English: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/europe/10385834.stm
M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI atwww.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2009. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS)