Industrial Disputes and the Law in Spain

Strike activity in Spain is unusually high compared to most other developed countries and, moreover, it has remained at a high level for the last decade, whilst strike rates have been falling in most other countries. One possible explanation for this poor strikes record is Spanish labour law with respect to industrial disputes which may be too permissive, or have remained permissive whilst other countries have tightened their legislative frameworks. By investigating the comparative strike record and comparative strike law across Europe, it is clear that neither of the above scenarios holds true. Spanish law is neither particularly permissive, nor has it become more permissive relative to other countries which suggests that, given some caveats, Spanish strikes law cannot be held responsible for the poor strike record. Some tentative assessment of other possible explanations is made using industry data on strikes, collective bargaining coverage and levels, union representation and the proportion of fixed-term contract workers. Taken together these results are indicative of a role for non--legal industrial or labour market institutions in explaining strikes. There is clearly, though, a crying need for more micro industrial relations data sets to properly test the influence of both exogenous and endogenous factors in explaining strikes.