The Scholarship Statute will reach the Council of Ministers more than two years late

BarcelonaAfter two and a half years shelved, the Intern Statute will finally reach the Council of Ministers this Tuesday as a draft bill, according to reports. The Country and the ARA has been able to confirm. The Ministry of Labor of Sumar In June 2023, it announced an agreement with the UGT and CCOO unions. To push through this new legal framework for student internships, the measure was halted by the snap election and has remained stalled due to disagreements with business leaders and university rectors. It was further complicated by the misgivings of the Ministry of Economy (PSOE), which considered the text "too preliminary."

The objective of the Internship Statute is to clearly define this role and regulate non-work placements to put an end to the fraud that students have suffered for years due to their misuse in some companies. However, the text has been watered down as negotiations have progressed and will not require all company internships to be paid, as the unions initially hoped. The unions also demanded the elimination of extracurricular internships, which are not recognized as credits on academic transcripts and have often been used to replace permanent staff. Finally, extracurricular internships will not be allowed to exceed 480 hours, half the current limit. The new regulation includes a penalty system, which will fine companies for the most serious breaches up to €225,000. It will also require companies to cover students' expenses—such as transportation, meals, and accommodation—that may arise from their internships. Only in cases where the internship is paid or involves public funding will the company be exempt from reimbursing these expenses. This was one of the points that concerned employers' associations and university rectors, who warned Minister Yolanda Díaz of the possibility that some third-sector entities or public institutions might not be able to cover this cost. It should be remembered that until recently, interns only contributed to social security when they undertook paid internships. As of January 1, 2024, this obligation was extended so that all students undertaking internships are registered with Social Security and, therefore, this time is counted as contributions.

Complicated approval

Although the Internship Statute is about to receive the green light from the Council of Ministers—it was initially intended to be a decree-law—it remains to be seen whether the Spanish government will be able to get it approved in the Congress of Deputies. Following Junts' announced break with the PSOE, the balance of power in the lower house is more delicate than ever. The party of Carles Puigdemont has been closer to the employers' association's position in other recent labor measures, such as the rejection of the reduction of the working day to 37.5 hours per week, which they managed to overthrow last SeptemberFurthermore, in 2023 other regular partners of the Spanish government already expressed doubts about this regulation.

This is not the only issue pending for Minister Yolanda Díaz, who still needs to finalize an agreement on the new increase to the minimum wage (SMI) for 2026. The last increase was already agreed upon without the participation of employers. In addition, the Second Vice President of the Spanish government has also committed to tackling the major challenge of dismissal reform, after... Europe has scolded the State on several occasions to increase the compensation for unfairly dismissing a worker.