Overheard in the office
According to the Spanish laws regarding work, there's a general commong ground called "Estatuto de los trabajadores" and then each sector has specific agreements, signed between representatives of companies (Patronal) and unions (sindicatos) which rule things such as cattegories, improvements over the Estatuto. Moreover, big companies have workers' comittees (Comités de Empresa) for even more specific improvements and agreements. Does this sound complex?
I'm just entering work now and I'm listening to one of my colleagues, who happens to be in the Workers Union. They had a meeting on Friday regarding the "Convenio" for IT and Consulting companies. The companies don't want mandatory salary increase, nor defining the cattegories decently (I remember my "just above junior" cattegory for 3 years with my 8 years work experience). They don't want either effective count of work hours nor all that type of small things which makes your job decent. And if it weren't for work protection laws, we wouldn't even have chairs to sit at work (it's a fixed cost anyway).
One detail: when I compare my work conditions with my friends in the US I see I lot of differences. Culturally speaking, this is a different world.
This mean we're likely to go into strike in a few weeks time. We'll see.
I'm just entering work now and I'm listening to one of my colleagues, who happens to be in the Workers Union. They had a meeting on Friday regarding the "Convenio" for IT and Consulting companies. The companies don't want mandatory salary increase, nor defining the cattegories decently (I remember my "just above junior" cattegory for 3 years with my 8 years work experience). They don't want either effective count of work hours nor all that type of small things which makes your job decent. And if it weren't for work protection laws, we wouldn't even have chairs to sit at work (it's a fixed cost anyway).
One detail: when I compare my work conditions with my friends in the US I see I lot of differences. Culturally speaking, this is a different world.
This mean we're likely to go into strike in a few weeks time. We'll see.