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In October 1998, the construction federation of the Spanish CC.OO trade union confederation embarked on a procedure (known as a popular legislative initiative) to promote a non-government legislative bill to regulate subcontracting in the sector. Parliament has accepted submission of the proposal.
In October 1998, the relevant committee of Spain's Congress of Deputies (the lower house of Parliament) accepted a proposal to regulate subcontracting in the construction sector that the construction federation of the CC.OO trade union confederation had submitted as a "popular legislative initiative" (Iniciativa Legislativa Popular, ILP). The ILP is a procedure provided for under the Spanish constitution that allows ordinary citizens to present proposals directly to Congress if they are endorsed by a certain number of signatures. As soon as the bureaucratic procedures had been completed in December, CC.OO was due to begin to collect the 500,000 signatures necessary for the bill to be presented for debate and possible adoption in Parliament.
The aim of CC.OO is clear. It feels that the increase in subcontracting in the construction sector is rapidly leading to greater precariousness in employment, deregulation of industrial relations and an increase in the industrial accident rate (ES9710126F).
Nearly 60% of workers in the construction sector are now on temporary contracts, and this figure rises to 80% for site workers. Add in the figure of 16% self-employed workers, who are in fact often wage earners but not recognised as such, and it can be seen that secure employment is limited to a mere 4%, represented by supervisors and site managers. These figures can be explained only by subcontracting. The large construction firms deal only with the management of a project, subcontracting the execution of the work itself to another company that in turn subcontracts the same work, or specific elements of it, to another firm, and so on. The work is carried out by small companies - in many cases micro-companies - or by self-employed workers who often work under enormous pressure of cost and time. The high number of serious and fatal accidents in the sector is one consequence of this situation, which also leads to job insecurity, long working hours, low wages and the absence of individual and collective labour rights. In the opinion of CC.OO, to avoid this situation it is necessary to introduce far stricter regulations to limit subcontracting and to regulate employers' responsibilities.