The Primacy of Company-level Agreements in Spain. An Unusual Approach for Continental Europe

Numerous labour reforms have been introduced in Spain as a consequence of the 2008 international financial crisis. The one explored in the present paper brought about a “conceptual revolution” of unprecedented proportions, not necessarily because it contributed to reforming company-level agreements – a well-established collective tool – negotiated by and in favour of businesses, but rather because it gives primacy to plant-level bargaining, breaking with a century-old Spanish and European tradition that assigned relevance to agreements reached at a higher level, as set out in Article 83 of the Spanish Workers’ Statute (ET) of 1980 and as clarified, to some extent, by the prior in tempore criterion contained in Article 84.