Toledo.- The delegate of the Government of Spain in Castilla-La Mancha, Francisco Tierraseca, presided this morning the Regional Commission for the Management, Coordination, and Socio-Labor Integration of Labor Migratory Flows in Agricultural Campaigns, which analyzes the development of past agricultural campaigns and the needs that may present those of this year.
“It is a Commission to order migratory flows according to the labor needs of the agricultural sector and see the availability of workers for these tasks in the Public Employment Services,” said Tierraseca, recalling, at the same time, that “each assistant has an important role” so that the result of these campaigns is the normal development of the same.
The government delegate thanked all the institutions and the agricultural sector for their coordination in order to achieve increasingly orderly agricultural campaigns and stressed that it has been shown that the Labour Reform has succeeded in reducing precariousness in the agricultural sector, since it has been found that temporary contracts have been gradually replaced by fixed-discontinuous ones.
In this regard, he has highlighted the agility to resolve the demand for labor and the efforts made to provide decent housing conditions to the seasonal workers, although he has asked all the attendees to make “a global effort to guarantee the minimum conditions of dignity for all the seasonal workers” who work in the different campaigns of the region. Along with this, the other focus of attention this year will be to see how the drought situation affects the different campaigns, which may be advanced or shortened by its effect and this may affect the number of hires or the number of working days.
Between January and March, the membership in the special agricultural system stood at 29,700 workers, which is a “rather insignificant decrease” compared to the first quarter of last year, so he has asked to wait for the entire year to be completed in order to make a real assessment. Of the members, 54% are Spanish and 46% are foreigners, “distributed practically equally between workers from the EU and non-EU”.
The government delegate has hoped that the workforce that is offered from the Public Employment Services will be sufficient to meet the demand of the sector for the various planned campaigns, although he has recalled that, if necessary, there is a specific regulation that regulates the collective management of contracts at source.
It is the entrepreneurs of the sector who have to request it and, if they are favorable, it is authorized, as already happens in the province of Albacete, where there are authorized four contingents of contracting at origin, mainly for Senegalese and Moroccan workers. Last year there were two authorized ones.
Francisco Tierraseca also particularly appreciated the work of the Labour Inspectorate, together with the Civil Guard and the National Police, to ensure that “the law is complied with” which, in short, is about guaranteeing the rights of workers in the countryside.
Finally, it insisted on its commitment to offer permanent dialogue with agricultural organizations and trade union representatives so that the agricultural campaigns in Castilla-La Mancha develop normally.
In addition to the delegate of the Government and the subdelegate of Toledo, the directors of the areas of Labor and Immigration, of Agriculture of the Delegation of the Government; the Office of Foreigners of Toledo; the Labor Inspection, SEPE, Tax Agency and Treasury of the Social Security; also, the Deputy Minister of Employment, Social Dialogue and Labor Welfare, the Deputy Minister of Employment, Sustainable Development and Social Welfare, and the coordinator of the General Directorate of Agriculture and Livestock, representatives of the Agricultural and Livestock Welfare Organizations, have participated.