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Spanish National Court ruling invalidates articles of the collective agreement for the retail sector, which was already denounced by UNI affiliated unions CC.OO and UGT as illegal, anti-union and undemocratic. 

UNI Commerce and its affiliated Unions in Spain, CC.OO and UGT welcomed the decision of the National Court to cancel some articles of the collective agreement in force for the period 2013-2016 covering all department stores in Spain and signed after a biased negotiation between the large employer retail association ANGED (which associates big retail companies such as El Corte Ingles, Carrefour , Auchan , Ikea , FNAC , Leroy Merlin , etc.) and the yellow union FETICO. 

Since the moment the collective agreement was signed, CCOO and UGT have used all means at their disposal to denounce the agreement as anti union, anti democratic and further deteriorating the situation of retail workers in Spain. 

The legal challenge of some of the provisions contained in the agreement has been one of the means used by the Unions to protest against it. The agreement was against the law and a far-reaching anti-union deal, as it sought to exclude Spanish democratic unions, CCOO and UGT from any new negotiations to amend the same agreement for at least three years.

The “Sectoral pact for employment and for domestic demand in a situation of crisis,” as the agreement was called also provided for the possibility of cutting pay by 5 percent for work places that record losses, even if they belong to companies that, overall, were making profits. The related article, allowing this option, has been also deleted by the Spanish Court confirming what CC.OO and UGT have being arguing for months. The real goal of this article was to allow salary reductions over pretext of losses avoiding company level bargaining as it would have been hard to allow salary cuts when the overall business presented positive results. 

Union busting, gender discrimination and wage cuts have suffered a stroke in this judgment. UNI Commerce joins CC.OO and UGT on the occasion of a very remarkable court decision that restored confidence in workers’ rights and their trade union organisations.

CC.OO and UGT are aware that it is a limited victory as the bulk of provisions of the agreement remains in place, but once again it proves how a strong trade union action can curb irresponsible behaviour by large retailers and show workers the added value of joining a Union.