It is a battle that Pimec has been fighting for a long time, to obtain representation in the bodies of the General Administration of the State, and it has finally achieved its first fruit. The Catalan employers' association of small and medium-sized companies will be part of the National Consultative Commission on Collective Agreements (CNCC), in which until now only CEOE and Cepyme are present on the part of the employers' association. This commission has advisory functions regarding the functional scope of collective agreements and carries out an observatory of collective bargaining, among other tasks.
Currently, of the six members of the commission representing the employers' association, five belong to the CEOE and one to Cepyme. This is what will have to change from now on, once the right of the Catalan employers to occupy one of these positions has been recognized. In a letter dated February 6, the Ministry of Labor communicates to the CEOE the need to distribute these representatives again to accommodate Pimec.
“A door opens to correct an anomaly, to consolidate the State of the autonomies also in this area, and for small and medium-sized companies to gain representation at the level of the Spanish Administration,” point out Pimec sources, who consider that this decision It does not remain with its presence in the National Advisory Commission of Collective Agreements, but may be progressively extended to other organizations in which there is autonomous participation. This would be the case, for example, of the Economic and Social Council, the Fundae, the National Heritage Advisory Commission and the National Health and Safety at Work Commission.
To reach this decision, the Ministry of Labor has based itself on jurisprudence that establishes that the most representative business organizations at the level of the autonomous community have the right to have institutional representation in the field of the General Administration of the State. To exercise this right, there is a minimum threshold of representation of 15% of employers and workers, a condition that Pimec more than meets. In addition, it has a clear path because the confederation in which it is integrated, Conpymes, does not participate in the CNCC.
“For the first time, the Administration recognizes our right to participate in these organizations, a decision that will have great significance,” they add from Pimec.
Although right now CEOE and Cepyme share the employers' representatives on the commission, in the case of the unions the range is more open, and of the six representatives, UGT and CC.OO. They have two each, and the Basque union ELA-STV and the Galician CIG one each.
Parallel to this debate, Pimec and Conpymes continue their pressure to obtain presence at the social dialogue tables, where agreements are negotiated and where, for the moment, only CEOE and Cepyme are represented. The Government agreement includes the objective of improving the representativeness of SMEs in social dialogue and collective bargaining, but at the moment Labor has not taken the initiative to carry out this commitment.
