Representatives of the Workers’ Committees have addressed the Government of Catalonia with a suggestion to increase the number of jobs in the public sector from 200 to 244 thousand, with an increase in as many workers. According to the analysis conducted by the Workers’ Committees, as of now 30 % of those employed in this field are temporary workers or replacements for those staff employees who are absent from the workplace because of health issues or other reasons.
Although the trade unions failed to define the specific public service fields in which additional jobs would be most efficient and beneficial, the data obtained in the course of the investigation demonstrate that healthcare and education are two major fields with a tendency to recruit temporary labor. Therefore, the creation of additional jobs in these two sectors would help to solve the problem of employment insecurity.
Jesus Gonzalez, the Director of the Workers’ Committees subdivision protecting the public sector workers’ rights, maintains that in order to avoid a “jobs demand shock” on the labor market, a staff expansion of this kind needs to be carried out gradually and would take several years to accomplish. Apart from their demands to increase the number of jobs available, the trade unions also have suggested measures to optimize the salary increments system.