Why do you want to
live in Spain? Is it the lifestyle, the food, the sun, the beaches and the low
cost of living? Yes, Spain is a fantastic place. However, if you are looking to live and work in Spain, now really is not
the time.
Spain has been in the international news yet again. The
official unemployment rate is now over 20% and the economic crisis here shows
no signs of recovery. The work ethic in general is extremely laid back at times
in Spain. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve worked with some very competent, capable and
hardworking Spaniards. But some cultures are hard to change and it is easy to
get sucked into this particular way of life - and of course many ex-pats follow suit. Smoking
breaks, two-hour lunches, siestas, breakfasts and numerous coffee breaks
throughout the day ensure that your average Spanish company's productive output
wouldn’t be much higher if you employed a workforce of Garfield the cats.
One of the problems is that the employment law in Spain is
very much favoured towards the employee. At first this may seem like a good
thing. But the law is so much in the employee's favour that the average worker
does not fear for his or her job, giving them a licence to do exactly what they
like, which very often is pretty much nothing. If you are released from your
contract, companies by law are obliged to pay out 45 days’ salary for every
year worked at the company. So if you have a modest €18k salary and have been
working for 5 years then you will get a whopping €11k payout from the company.
In addition to this, the government will very generously supplement your large
payout with unemployment benefit between 500 and 1100 euros per month. This
figure is usually related to what you were earning and how long you have been
working, so getting the maximum will often be the case. You can expect to get
unemployment benefit, called “el paro”, for a minimum of six months and in many
cases up to two years.
That means that over the next six months you could have
earned (net) more than double by doing nothing than you would have earned had
you stayed at the company working like an orphan in a sweatshop.
So what if an employer would rather that his lazy so-and-so
employee goes and finds another opportunity somewhere else, so he doesn't have
to sack him? Well, he could make life difficult for him, promote colleagues,
exclude him from meetings and so on. But would he leave? Absolutely no way, not
if he has an €11k severance package at stake. This, he would forfeit if he left.
Therefore, as a direct consequence of this, employer and employee are often
stuck with each other.
It's true that the severance pay would not be applicable if
there were reasonable grounds for dismissal. But ineptitude and apathy are not
generally considered "reasonable grounds". Furthermore, as an
employer you may not want to take the risk especially as litigation for unfair
dismissal is popular in Spain.
These employment regulations in Spain are a massive
hindrance to economic growth and in turn overall wealth. It is partly due to
these reasons that the economy in Spain is so poor. The lack of ambition,
teamwork, drive and discipline means that salaries remain low, output remains
low and unemployment remains high.
For those coming to Spain looking for a good job
with a decent salary and career prospects, right now really is not the time. At
the time of writing this article, Spain's Prime Minister Zapatero is trying
to reform the labour laws so that it is easier to hire and fire staff. Fortunately
Spain now recognise the problems they face and the action that is required to
make changes.
