스페인 비정규직 정책의 내용 및 성과 분석

Although the Spanish government has implemented various labor market policies to suppress temporary employment and facilitate regular employment, the proportion of temporary workers still stays around twice the level of European Union average. It is the objective of this study to analyze the contents and effects of various policy alternatives so as to explain why the proportion of temporary workers has not been lowered. Lowering the unemployment rate as well as the proportion of temporary workers has been the principal goal of Spanish labor market policies, while the relative priority has switched between two targets over time. The labor market policies which brought about big changes were those of 1984, 1997 and 2006. The 1984 flexibilization policy enhanced the proportion of temporary workers quite a bit by neutralizing the causality principle for the use of temporary workers. The 1997 policy managed to convert the trend of soaring proportion of temporary workers to a moderate trend of decline by reducing the severance payment for regular workers and providing the firms contracting regular workers with a reduction of social security contribution rate. The 2006 policy which strengthened the regulations over temporary employment and increased financial incentives significantly for the firms contracting regular workers in comparison with the 1997 one could result in reducing temporary employment and enlarging permanent employment successfully. Among the various policy alternatives implemented, the most influential one has been whether to adopt the causality principle or not. The neutralization of the causality principle increased temporary employment greatly while its reinstatement brought about only a limited effect. In discouraging temporary employment and facilitating regular employment, on the other hand, the relaxation of employment protection for regular workers has not been effective, whereas the provision of financial incentives for regular employment contracts such as the policies of 1997 and 2006 has been quite effective. The proportion of temporary workers still stays high despite the execution of some successful labor market policies, confirming limited effects of of labor market policies and the presence of external constraints. Low-technology, low value-added manufacturing and service industries tend to yield demand for low-skilled, low-wage employment, while the enormous inflow of immigrants and foreign workers has sustained the labor market situation of excess supply which in turn reinforces the industrial structure and production model dependent on temporary employment. In addition, the leading industries in Spanish economy such as the construction industry and tourism-related industries are inherently sensitive to business cycle and seasonal fluctuation in labor demand, tending to yield demand for seasonal or temporary labor force rather than permanent one. The employers rather have pursued a strategy to secure the external flexibility of labor in face of recurrent economic crisis, which tends to make it difficult for the proportion of temporary workers to fall.