The number of employment contracts has skyrocketed in La Rioja in May, with 45% above the April figure. The clearing tasks in the vineyard – cleaning the stems – and the care of fruit trees have boosted this figure to its highest level. … highest figure so far this year (11,177). In these first five months, 39,274 employment contracts have been signed, 7.6% less than in the same period of 2023, and the Services sector accounts for 60%.
Hospitality and tourism are activities where these discharges abound, but also health and social service jobs, linked above all to caring for the elderly, where “poor conditions generate high labor turnover. It is a sector with very high casualties due to physical and mental exhaustion,” says Isabel Blanco, employment secretary of UGT. In this sense, Jorge Ruano, head of CC OO in La Rioja, speaks of a “very stressed” sector.
Unions and employers disagree about the need for labor. «Companies do not find specialized profiles nor those with lower qualifications. “This way it is very difficult to grow, design a new production line, access a foreign market,” laments Pedro José Sáez, head of consultancy at the La Rioja Business Federation. On the other hand, Blanco points out that “it is false that there is no workforce. There are 13,000 unemployed, what exists are poor working conditions.
“It is false that there is no workforce in some sectors, what there is are bad conditions”
Isabel Blanco
UGT Employment Secretary
«Conciliation and staff training are now the priorities in the negotiation»
Jorge Ruano
General Secretary of CC OO
«You cannot constantly demonize the temporary contract that has given such good results»
Pedro Jose Saez
FER Consulting Manager
Ruano does recognize “advances” in labor matters “such as the increase in the interprofessional minimum wage or the temporary employment that is increasingly less.” However, the proportion of permanent contracts still remains at 36.5% in the January-May period. In the last month it has reached 31.19% “when in 2019 it was 5.2%,” points out the UGT representative. All in all, “we must continue working to increase this percentage” of indefinite hiring, recognizes the general secretary of CC OO, but also “there are new priorities such as reducing the working day, improving work-life balance and also the training of workers ».
However, Sáez emphasizes that “temporary contracts are essential for many activities where production peaks occur or at certain times of the year. “They cannot be constantly demonized because they have worked.”
Retirements and relief
The profile of new hires is “diverse,” they agree, and both employers and unions consider “qualification” key. In this sense, «it is essential that the teaching and training of universities and vocational training centers be aligned with the business and sector reality. “A lot of the population is going to retire,” says the person in charge of consulting at the FER.
This relief is needed in the world of work “and our concern is to reinforce active employment policies to redirect the long-term unemployed and reintroduce them into the labor market,” concludes the UGT Employment Secretary.
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