Spain: Government takes emergency action on employment

The Spanish Government approved a set of urgent measures in March 2009, aimed at saving and creating jobs and helping unemployed people, after trade unions and employers' organisations failed to reach agreement on this issue, or on pay increases for 2009.

The main national employers' organisations, CEOE and CEPYME (representing small and medium-sized employers), and trade union confederations, CCOO and UGT, have failed to reach an "interconfederal agreement on collective bargaining" for 2009.