EU causes Spanish dock strife

IT has been widely reported that stevedores in Spain had been threatening strike action in protest against sweeping new changes in the law which will see their terms of employment swept away.

Prior to the new legislation, ports in Spain were required to only employ stevedores who belonged to SAGEP, to guarantee minimum numbers at all times and to pay them in accordance with union rates.

Thanks to the intervention of the European Union, the European Court of Justice has ruled that this practise is in breach of EU legislation and therefore the Spanish Government was required to effectively break the current monopoly and allow ports to employ whoever they want and on terms to be agreed between the parties.

A further problem affected the legislation as Podemos and PSOE vote against the law and Ciudadanos decided to abstain which meant that the Spanish government was unable to push it through.