The meeting convened by the President of the Government, who was accompanied by the Minister for Work and Immigration, Celestino Corbacho, was attended by the General Secretaries of UGT, Cándido Méndez and CC.OO, Ignacio Fernández Toxo on behalf of the Unions.
Representing the employers' associations, the Chairmen of the CEOE, Gerardo Díaz Ferrán and of the CEPYME, Jesús Bárcenas attended.
The business leaders, workers and the President of the Government appeared at a press conference, in this order, at the end of the meeting.
The President of the Government stressed in his speech that the document presented is "dense" and "well thought out" and that he was open to dialogue, since what he intended is "to facilitate" and not to replace "the channels for dialogue" between the Government and the social stakeholders.
He insisted that the Government's proposals did not contain any loss of rights for workers regarding severance pay. This was something that had been shared with the unions and was not questioned by business leaders, he added.
Furthermore, he explained that one of the basic objectives of the reform is to encourage permanent contracts, without this meaning higher costs to business owners, or loss of rights for the workers.
Mr. Rodríguez Zapatero said he wants the dialogue to be "swift" and that he "wants to get cracking" on creating and giving stability to employment, since that is what society demands and is the "Government's uppermost obligation", he added.
Lines of action
The President of the Government summarised the lines of action from the document presented to the social stakeholders.
The first, he explained, is aimed at reducing duality between permanent and temporary workers and to curb the "excessive" temporary nature of our labour market.
The second of these lines considers it an "essential" priority to help the hiring of young people.
The third is focused on strengthening the Public Services for Employment and on the general improvement of work-related mediation.
Another action from the document is the revision of the current policy on bonuses for hiring so that its effectiveness is not as limited as it is at present.
To promote collective bargaining and the internal flexibility of companies; to continue progressing with equality and non-discrimination between women and men in the workplace; to improve the control of work-related absenteeism; and to encourage the use of the reduced working day as an instrument for temporary adjustment of employment - the so-called "German model", are the other lines of action included in the document.
Social stakeholders
The President of the Government expressed his appreciation for the positive response he received from the Unions and business leaders.
For the CEOE President, Mr. Díaz Ferrán, the lines of the document were "all positive and all are going in the right direction".
He added that they were convinced that the reform of the labour market was vital to return to the growth path and to exit the crisis.
The CEPYME President, Mr. Bárcenas, said that they understood that the Government had made a huge effort in getting everyone together today and, from there, not only the Unions, but also the Government and business owners were agreed on starting work soon "by taking on the responsibility for the problems we are going through".
The first impression of Cándido Méndez, General Secretary of the UGT, was, he is quoted as saying, that the document has "sufficient scope as regards the headings and is sufficiently flexible as regards precision" to talk about employment.
In the opinion of the General Secretary of the CC.OO, Fernández Toxo, it gives the conditions for opening negotiations and added that "it is a proposal, and is therefore open to discussion".