"We are feeding a time bomb". So says economist and president of human resources company ICSA Group, Ernest Poveda, before "the abuse" of temporary contracts that has monopolised the Spanish labour market for years, focusing mainly on less skilled jobs. The data prove him right. According to the State's Public Employment Service (SEPE), during the first seven months of 2021 the average duration of contracts is under two months, specifically 54.1 days. The figure is more alarming - says the economist - if you consider that the economic crisis of covid has not had any impact, since compared with recent years is a little longer. In 2007, in times of supposed economic bonanza, the median duration of contracts was 78.6 days; 2013, in full financial crisis, fell to 53.3 days, and 2019, before the pandemic broke out, it reached historic lows by dropping for the first time below 50 days. "Short-term employment has become chronic and there is an abuse of temporality and this causes instability for many workers, who have one contract after another, something that directly affects the economy and especially consumption, because a person who is in this situation does not consider buying a home or a vehicle," he exemplifies.

With negotiations for labour reform between the Spanish government and the social partners in full swing, the Labour Ministry's proposals are becoming more concrete. An agreement has not yet been reached in the framework of social dialogue, but the department headed by Minister Yolanda Díaz has already put its proposals on the table. Diaz wants to limit temporary contracts to six months - extendable to one year by collective agreement - and eliminate the contract of work and service. She also proposes that the dismissal of workers with temporary contracts be considered void instead of unfair in the case that the contract was not properly justified, regardless of the reason given by the company to terminate it.