The labor reform of 2012 introduced a substanial modification of Article 86.3 of the Workers Statute related to the legal system for extending collective agreements in force until then.
The new wording states that when a statutory collective agreement is legally challenged (1), it will remain in effect for no more than one year, unless the agreement itself has a specific provision to the contrary, and the introduction of compulsory arbitration (2) for the settlement of conflicts once the negotiation process has been exhausted.
The preliminary agreement for the Monitoring Commission of the 2nd Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining on the extension of collective agreements, signed on May 21 by CEOE, CEPYME, CCOO and UGT, signalled the possibility of reaching specific agreements on extension, including during the negotiating stage of the new agreement. This would occur when one of the parties, the unions or the company, decides that the negotiation has been exhausted, resorting to arbitration, the decision of which would have the same legal effect as a collective agreement. That said, we can find agreements that were extended past July 7 but which finally were submitted to arbitration.