The Effects of Labour Market Reforms on Social Partners' Bargaining Power in Spain: Assessment from a Legal and Economic Perspective

During the economic crisis (2008-2013), the Spanish government approved profound legal changes in labour market regulations which undermined the trade unions’ position. A main aim of the new regulation was to promote the decentralization of collective bargaining. At the same time, this legal reform contributed to the erosion of bargaining at sectoral level. The main objective of the paper is to provide an overview of the limitations of social partners’ bargaining power after the labour market reforms.  In order to achieve this goal, authors are using a methodology based on legal and economic analysis. Firstly, we check if the collective bargaining coverage has been reduced in the period 2014-2016 and identify the most affected sectors. In addition, we quantify the percentage of new firm-level collective agreements. Secondly, it is necessary to assess how effective is the power of the workers representatives in negotiating wages and working time at company level. Thirdly, the paper focuses on opt-out measures and how they are being negotiated by workers representatives, in particular, in small and medium side companies.