This article addresses the process that has been followed up to the publication of the rate of coverage of collective bargaining. So far, there was no comprehensive official figure for spain, and references available were the estimates published by international organizations, such as ilo (International labour organization) or the OECD (Organization for economic cooperation and development). Thus, the publication of the rate of coverage of collective bargaining in Spain is a historic milestone in the field of labour statistics has had to overcome by the way not few technical difficulties to reach the point where we find ourselves today.

Keywords: collective bargaining coverage collective agreements.

This article explains the process leading up to the publication of the collective bargaining coverage rate data. Until now, Until now, no official figure was available for Spain, and the available references were estimates published by international organizations such as the ILO (International Labour Organization) and the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). Thus, the publication of the collective bargaining coverage rate in Spain represents a historic milestone in the field of labour statistics, which has had to overcome numerous technical difficulties along the way to reach the point we are at today.

In recent months discussions by various forums on working hours and wages. Trade unions, employers and the Ministry of labour and Social Economy (LIMITS) questioned whether to reduce the first and how to increase the seconds, or even if it is necessary to modify any of the two or how they can affect other variables of the economy and jobs. A debate that not only to the Institutional level, but mainly because they are issues that affect the citizenship and also commented on the street, the bar, the bakery …

Both, working hours and wages, are basic issues (although not the only ones) in the field of labour relations and are part of collective bargaining, which is the mainstay of social dialogue. It could be said that collective bargaining is the system for fixing the conditions of work, born on the basis of the agreement of the social partners. Is the realization of the balance between the forces operating in the system of labour relations.

The international labour organization recognizes the right to collective bargaining and enshrines Constitution ¹ . This is its importance, which was later reaffirmed in the Declaration on fundamental principles and rights and its follow-up ² of 1998 and in conventions, as the C 098 Right to organize and collective bargaining 1949 , or C 154 Convention on the promotion of collective bargaining 1981 .

Within the european union, Charter of fundamental rights ³ the union also recognizes, for workers and employers, “ the right to negotiate and conclude collective agreements, at appropriate levels (…) ”.

The results of that collective bargaining are specified in collective agreements, whose binding force is recognized in Spain in the own Constitutionarticle 37 . 1 : “ The law guarantees the right to collective bargaining labour among the representatives of workers and employers, as well as the binding force of the conventions ” ⁴ . Status of workers, collective agreements are the instrument regulating working conditions, productivity and “ labour peace ”.
Statistically speaking, the quantitative and qualitative results of collective agreements are analysed and published by the sub-department for Work-Related statistics and analysis (SGEAS) LIMITS itself, through the collective labour agreements (CST) ⁵ .

To that end, the information presented in this statistic, unlike the other, not what is happening, but which prefigures what should happen (how much should acquire a worker, under the agreed; or how many hours should work, as negotiated). For example, spoke of wages, as other statistics, but not in real wages and salaries paid, but agreed wages, i.e. what is expected that a worker should acquire a future in a given time to the convention.

These data, in turn, may serve as a basis for future negotiations between the social partners and also for the design of public policies. That is why it is much more comprehensively than others, whose exploitation, in addition, is gradually being improved with the objective of giving a broader vision of the working conditions in the labour market. Under this premise, the great achievement of the subdirectorate General statistical and analytical in Society 2024 it has been the publication, for the first time, rate of coverage of collective bargaining.

Why is it so important to have this data? A peculiarity of Spain is that collective bargaining covers working people, whether or not. during Collective bargaining improvement (how much, but always improvement) their working conditions. This is why it is important, because the more people covered by a collective agreement, better working conditions will have their jobs.

So far, there was no comprehensive official figure for coverage of collective bargaining in spain and the references available were the estimates published by international organizations, such as ilo (international labour organization) or the OECD (Organization for economic cooperation and development). Thus, the publication of the rate of coverage of collective bargaining in Spain is a historic milestone in the field of labour statistics has had to overcome by the way not few technical difficulties to reach the point where we find ourselves today.

José Ignacio Pérez Infante, economist, expert in collective bargaining and one of the major drivers of the measurement of coverage in spain, as stated in 2017 in his article “The statistics of collective agreements and the measurement of the coverage of collective bargaining” ⁶ “[…] possibly the most important aspect for the measurement of the importance of collective bargaining is coverage in the number of workers from the same”. Concurred with the discretion of the producers of statistics for collective labour agreements, and address the lack of information in this regard has been one of the priorities of the SGEAS in recent years. It is noteworthy that this demand was not the occurrence of a few, because it had identified this deficiency in the past, analysing and assessing potential solutions.

The 16 june 2010 in the meeting of the standing committee of senior statistical Council, Working group on statistics of Collective Bargainingchaired by the own José Ignacio Pérez Infante, with the objective of improving the information available in this Area. This group (whose membership included the INE ⁷ the ministry of labour and immigration ⁸ , AEAT ⁹ and the social partners CCCO ¹⁰ UGT, ¹¹ and CEOE ¹² ), counts among its objectives with the analysis of the sources and methods of calculation for the disposal of the number of people covered by collective agreements. The Group remained active until march 2011 and concluded with the presentation of a report which included a series of recommendations, including “improving the enforcement procedure of the key to the convention by companies in transactions with Social security”, by establishing some form of compulsion upon completion.

Thus, the “Royal Decree 708 / 2015 , 24 july, amending various general rules in the field of Social security for the implementation and development of the law 34 / 2014 , 26 december, of measures related to liquidation and income of Social security contributions, and other legal provisions” ¹³ , mandatory for the employercommunicating the code or codes of collective agreements applicable in both the entrepreneur as registration in the high and low pressure and variations of working people in employment.

For the SGEAS, have the information at the level of employment relationship for working people, facilitated by the treasury of Social security (TGSS), was a turning point in the work and in improving the quality of information available. This additional source complemented the information provided by the road in REGCON recorded Statistics, but also implied decisions on methodological level.

Definition

The process began trying to establish a definitionto measure the coverage of collective bargaining and there arose out of the first debate. In the history books on this topic were found not potential definitions, disparate but even with a single criterion. The difficulty of harmonizing, perhaps due to the attempt to establish a definition with a real possibility of calculating, had been caught by their own sources of information available to date. Having finally with the information at the level of employment relationship provided by the TGSS allowed to take a decision on the definition of the measurement of the coverage of collective bargaining, as influenced by the inadequacy of available sources.

This new level of detail of reporting would solve some of the issues raised in the past that had not been able to solve previously, in part because the available sources provided aggregated data. Among them power deduct those groups which do not have a convention for exclusion of the law itself (either because they do not have the right to collective bargaining or because the other type of agreement) or because they were not provided the opportunity to parties agree that legitimized (such as domestic workers).

With regard to the preference of the measurement criterion through absolute numbers or relating, another open dilemmas, nor made it necessary to choose, as the new source to calculate both alternatives. In this case, the dissemination of both the ground that it provided additional information: the number of working relations with a convention of application provides information about the size, but you may be influenced by the economic situation and the occupation of the population, while the rate of coverage offers information about that facilitates comparison between periods.

On the other hand, this recent level of disaggregation of information it required to take a decision within a new area: the choice between labour relations or caregivers. After a series of detailed analysis, it was concluded that the information of employment relationship provided greater detail and did not require decision-making additional statistics, so we decided, at least at this first phase, for the first alternative. it has not been ruled out the dissemination at individual workers, but it is important to bear in mind that allocating a convention working person is not as simple as group records “ neutral ”. The same worker or employee may be associated with a number of labour relations simultaneously and these in turn may have allocated a number of conventions, one or none. To have the information at the level of individual workers, will be necessary to pursue certain criteria such as selecting among the various conventions which apply what is the main (in the case that a number of labour relations have agreement), or to decide if a worker is wholly or partly filled (according to all their labour relations are covered by some convention, or are Only some of them). In any case, to the reader, this is a minority situation, which represents less than 3 per cent of cases.

Following lengthy deliberations, an agreement was reached to the definition. Well, it was concluded that:

- coverage of collective bargainingmeasured by the number of labour relations act covered by collective agreements;
- rate of coverage of collective bargaining measured by the proportion of labour relations act covered by a collective agreement on the reference population that has the right to the convention.

Formally, the rate of coverage of collective bargainingthe proportion of labour relations and self-employed ¹⁴ that applies a collective agreement ¹⁵ on the population susceptible of being regulated by collective bargaining.

It is estimated as as the ratio between the number of labour relations act covered by the convention (s) collective (s) and the number of working relations that may be regulated by collective agreements in accordance with the law and domestic uses (i.e., right to collective bargaining, being this right the associated with the signing of collective agreements).

Information

The methodology and defined the calculation, the next step was for the treatment of new information.

The TGSS sends to a file where SGEAS sets out for each connection in Social security, the code or codes of implementation partners for each employment relationship in the company. This is a “ snapshot ” of the high at the last day of the month of reference and is received after the end of the month, within one week.

Once received the data, first extractionpara establecer la población de referencia descrita en el denominador, i.e., el number of working relations with the right to the conventionFor its calculation, are excluded from the file all those groups which they cannot be regulated through collective agreements, as is the case of career civil servants and acting representatives, the statutory staff, senior managers and directors of administration, the ministers of religion (priests), all prisoners with work, members of Cooperatives (although wage earners who work on them would have the right to have a convention), those involved in training programmes, parliamentarians of Spanish courts, european and autonomous communities, who receive benefits at the community interests and those who perform work of social partnership.

With the reference population established a second debugto account for only those codes of the conventionfalling within the category of “valid” and delete users who do not meet this criterion, where necessary. For a code of the convention is taken must be registered (or would be susceptible to marginalization) in REGCON. But for the TGSS can have specific codes of updated, and to minimize errors in the completion at the time of registration in Social security, since the General directorate of labour (DGT, LIMITS), regularly refer to the listed TGSS with the new codes of registered in REGCON conventions. Thus, once identified records with valid applicable agreements, can be counted number of labour relations act covered by collective agreements, i.e. the numerator of the calculation formula.

As usual, was much more complex to establish the methodology and criteria which make the calculation of the measurement of coverage. On this occasion, in addition, it has the advantage of both study as the reference it is the same source, so there is no need of additional adjustments.

Dissemination

With the defined methodology and calculations made, was to decide what the format of dissemination. Were valued different alternatives, mainly on the periodicity, but after the study of the evolution of monthly data and the realisation that are very stable, it was decided that its publication would annual. It should be noted, however, that information is received and analysed and published monthly periodicities additional changes were detected in evolution.

After a long process of study, as detailed, information was ready for dissemination. Thus, in february 2024 order was issued by the coverage of collective bargaining, in its absolute and relative format. In this first dissemination, as an exception is published every year available, 2021 , 2022 and 2023 . In general, for the rest of exercises to publish the information provided in the rate of the base year in the publication of january of the following year, although it issued a preview of the first half of the year in the annual dissemination. Will be included, in addition, this information in annual publications to reflect their own development, but the data will not be rearranged in principle, because there is no provisional and final versions.

The results they present Functional area (company and umbrella to company) and sexand, according to sector of activity or sectionand autonomous community. Below is a summary chart of the information published for the years available, in absolute and relative values, where you can see that, although the figure is very stable shows a slightly higher rate of coverage:

My first question that could arise is why it is so necessary to have an additional source when there is already REGCON, an application that contains the complete documentation of the conventions registered and it is also of public consultation. The main reason is the quality and frequency of collection of information at the working people (and/or relationships). It is easy to understand that, although a number of company workers can know relatively easily, not the case in the Area, where it is much more complex have estimates of real numbers.

The first difference is the level of breakdown of information. Whilst in REGCON available information is added on working person at the level of the convention, the data provided by the TGSS details for each employment relationship. this way, may be added by the convention, account for quotation or enterprise, and dispose of the most appropriate information in each case avoiding overlaps. In the case of REGCON, shows the total number of people charged to each convention, but there is no way of knowing how many of them, or which are allocated to more than a convention.

The second difference stems from the sources a static or dynamic the register of information. While in REGCON character is static, as the information in the number of men and women workers associated with each convention is reflected at the time of the convention itself (and/or variations in wages), on Social security is reflected in the time of the high of the individual workers, but there is also the obligation to register also changes in the event of crises. This process of continuing “ modification ” implies that the photo received at the last day of month provide a more up-to-date information in the case of TGSS that in the case of REGCON.

Another difference is that the time is different. As indicated in the preceding paragraph, REGCON presents data to date of registration of the convention (and/or variations in wages). However, are codified TGSS agreement with the date of high employment associated with the individual worker in question or to the modification date of the convention associated with the employment relationship. That is, the information is linked to the employment relationship, not the date of registration of the convention.

Finally, the two sources study different collective. In REGCON recorded those workers who are bound to an agreement with known impacts and measurable impact in the publication of economic impact of The cst, and the workers of the conventions registered by date of signature. However, is recorded in TGSS all labour relations with conventions that can be applied, i.e. those with a valid convention.

Until the year 2024 there was no official data of coverage of collective bargaining in Spain, as indicated above.

However, some international agencies, such as the oecd and the ilo, provided their own estimates prior to the dissemination of data at state level. In both cases, in addition, its estimates are similar because its methodology is the same. It is based on use in the numerator the aggregated data from estadística de collective agreements and the denominator information from the Encuesta de población Activa (EPA) less the number of staff.

In the case of oecd, the latest available data (estimated) for spain is 2018 ¹⁶ . Although in our publication no information is available for the years leading up to 2021 with the new methodology of counting, arising from the available data at the level of employment relationship, with the passage of estimate from aggregated at real data from registration, Spain is located between the 5 first countries in a studio with highest rate of coverage, according to data of Oecd.

Furthermore, according to the latest data published by ilo, with reference date 2020 ¹⁷ , you can see how not only spain is among the countries with highest rate of coverage, but also, there are not many countries this percentage level.

It is the case that, in addition, the definition in the methodology for the spanish case is consistent with the adopted in the “Directive (EU) 2022 / 2041 of the european parliament and of the security council 19 october 2022 on minimum wages in the european Union” ¹⁸ .

Establishes, in this area, which member states shall communicate to the commission every two years and before 1 october reference year, inter alia, the rate of coverage of collective bargaining and its evolution. The first report shall include 2021 , 2022 and 2023 and be delivered by 1 october 2025 in Spain we are able to provide this information.

Have the information of the convention at the level of employment relationship provided by the TGSS, had opened a range of possibilities to explore in the collective labour agreements, the main official source of quantitative information on collective bargaining.

In the SGEAS work will continue to drive forward the various projects of expansion and improvement of the information available, including the analysis of the evolution of working people by agreement from the point of registration, the improvement of the information of economic activity (CNAE) of the conventions, the study of the priority aplicativa among the business sector and improved information pay, the new classification according to classification variables such as size of enterprise and degree of disability and any other need generated by the wayside.

Moreover, it is hoped that all planned improvements will result in address the deficiencies that historically had been detected and concerned the information available in collective bargaining, and access to quality information to negotiate improvements conventions and ultimately improve the conditions of working people.