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FECOMA Comisiones Obreras set to win new controls over subcontractors
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After six years of solid campaigning, Spanish building union FECOMA, has succeeded in getting their proposed legislation into Congress for debate and subsequently onto the statute books. In the year 2000, after two widely supported general strikes in construction, FECOMA gathered more than 600 000 signatories to support their Popular Legislative Initiative, which proposed legislation to control subcontractors.
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The health and safety record in the Spanish construction sector is the worst in Europe. FECOMA for years have been pointing to informal employment policies as the real cause of deteriorating working conditions and rocketing injury rates. The industry is dominated by small and micro companies: 95% have less than 25 workers and almost 70% have less than five. Added to this, there are far more so called self employed building workers than workers employed in all of these firms put together. This means brutal time and productivity pressure on workers, little or no investment in training, planning and supervision, lack of management systems and coordination between subcontractors, and gives rise to long chains of subcontractors who are not subject to any effective controls. The consequence is an industry out of control, and thousands of workers injured each year in entirely predictable and preventable "accidents". Given the absolute majority of the previous, right wing, Spanish government, FECOMA's proposal was rejected by Congress. With the new, socialist government, however, FECOMA represented their Popoular Legislative Initiative, and on the 21st of December 2004 they got the news they had waited so long to hear. The Spanish Congress will debate the FECOMA proposal and this will be the basis of forthcoming legislative controls over subcontracting in construction. These include: Creating a register of all subcontractors, which will have to be authorised to operate in the construction sector, the local authority departments of Employment and Social security will be charged with verifying compliance with legal minima. It will place limits on the quantity of work that can be contracted out, and will prohibit subcontracting chains. To celebrate, there will be a mass rally at the Spanish Congress building in Madrid on Januaary 21st 2005, with thousands of building workers and their supporters celebrating a hard won victory that will have an impact not only in Spain, but world wide. The International Federation of Building and Wood Workers salutes the magnificent effort made by Spanish trade unionists to defend their basic rights, and congratulates FECOMA on their success.
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| (19/01/2005) |
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