The president of Coexphal, Juan Antonio Gonzalez Real, has signed the collective agreement for the handling of fruit and vegetables that was reached with Asempal, Ecohal, and the CC. OO. and UGT unions. The agreement was signed at the Government delegation of the Junta de Andalucia, under the presidency of the Minister of Employment, Rocio Blanco.
Negotiations to reach the new agreement started in 2019, after the expiration of the previous agreement in 2018, and were mediated by SERCLA since the end of 2020, including through a three-day strike called by the unions last December.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez at the signing.
According to Luis Miguel Fernandez, the manager of Coexphal, the signing of this new collective agreement for the handling of fruits, vegetables, and flowers is very important. "It brings peace of mind for the cooperatives and companies for the coming years, so workers and companies can continue to offer quality products to the fruit and vegetable markets."
"Now it is essential that our associates familiarize themselves with all the points of the agreement to apply it correctly. To do this, the association organized one of the first informative talks to explain and clarify the details of the agreement. The talk was scheduled for last Tuesday and it had a massive turnout. Our legal department is at the service of our associated companies and cooperatives," the manager of Coexphal added.
The signing of the agreement.
The Minister of Employment, Rocio Blanco, underlined the relevance of this agreement in the province of Almeria and for the province's economy, as more than 25,000 workers depend on this activity, which has an annual production volume of more than 2,300 million euro, 80% in exports, and produces 12,000 tons of fruit and vegetables a day.
One of the most important points of the agreement is the 2% salary increase in 2021 and a 1% increase in salary per year in the following three years. The agreement also regulates the maximum weekly working day, the value of overtime, and the percentage of staff that can benefit from the Monday to Friday shift (20%).
The new agreement also establishes paid vacations at the end of the campaign (except if the workers and the companies agree otherwise), introduces a clause to calculate that 60% of a company's workforce must be permanent, eliminates the 120-day requirement per campaign to go from temporary to fixed discontinuous status, establishes specific clauses for equality plans in companies, and increases the clauses for childcare leave up to 12 years and 6 months, among other measures.
For more information:
Coexphal
Ctra. de Ronda 11, 1
04004 Almería (España)
Tel.: +34 950 621 162
www.coexphal.es