On “flexibility of the workforce”. Employers’ influence on the design of the Spanish labour relations system, 1979-1986

Abstract

The article analyses the influence of the Confederación Española de Organizaciones Empresariales (CEOE) on the design of the labour relations system during the transition to and the beginning of democracy in Spain. Despite a weak starting position, with a very rigid hiring system, rising labour costs, heavy conflict and the lack of a reference political party, the CEOE managed to influence labour policies and an institutional design favourable to its interests as an organization and those of whom it represented. In achieving these objectives, it was notably favoured by union competition and the first socialist government’s drive for liberalization. The result was a more flexible system, although strongly fragmented and not well articulated; compatible with corporate governance, moderate labour and social costs, and low and declining conflict.