Asturians signed a total of 302,643 employment contracts in 2021, the vast majority in three temporary modalities: temporary due to production circumstances (161,851, 70% lasting less than one month), work or service (71,737) and interim (34,548). ). And there were 14,426 indefinite contracts, 1,108 of them in the so-called discontinuous permanent contract category, residual in Asturias (0.36% of the total contracting volume), but which in the coming months will take on great importance: the labor reform will push companies to convert in discontinuous fixed to thousands of workers who until now were incorporated as temporary. These Asturians will formally have indefinite contracts, although their activity will be intermittent.
“The discontinuous fixed contract is called to increase notably; It will become the indefinite contract to carry out work of a seasonal nature or linked to seasonal activities or that are intermittent, but with certain execution periods ”, the legal services of the Asturian Federation of Entrepreneurs (FADE) have predicted. The new regulation of this type of employment, combined with the tightening of restrictions on temporary variations – the contract for work and service disappears, which for construction is replaced by a new indefinite version, and the eventual one due to production circumstances only it will be possible in cases of “unpredictable” increase in activity–, it will entail “a revolution” in the way of contracting, according to an expression of the FADE. It will occur with particular intensity in activities such as commerce, hospitality or in companies that provide services for others or for the Administration.
Commerce. The definition in force up to now of the temporary contract (“the one agreed to meet circumstantial market demands, accumulation of tasks or excess orders, even in the case of the normal activity of the company”) made it possible for the commercial sector to use it in a to reinforce templates in predictable periods of high activity (sales campaigns, Christmas, summer…). The reform, whose full effects will be effective as of March 31, requires dispensing with this modality and replacing it with discontinuous permanent employment.
Hostelry. Sources from the sector give an example to illustrate the “change” in human resource management that hospitality businesses are facing: “The businessman from Llanes who until now used temporary contracts to expand the kitchen staff and the waiters will have to make them permanent discontinuous”. And the same will happen, for example, with the incorporation of “extra” staff for days or weekends to, for example, serve banquets. The most common practice in this case was to make very short-term contracts that will not be viable now, if the need for personnel is considered “foreseeable”, or that will have a cost penalty (26 euros more than contribution for each leave) that will dissuade to the companies. The sources consulted highlighted that the expansion of the discontinuous fixed modality presents uncertainties, such as the management of “calls” (the obligations assumed by the employer to summon and incorporate the worker at times that must be predetermined with some degree of certainty) or the way of managing singular situations that the sector already envisions: for example, that of those waiters who have intermittent fixed contracts with several hoteliers.
You hire. The discontinuous fixed formula is also emerging as a substitute for the work and service contract in companies that provide services through commercial agreements with others or on behalf of the Administration. Except in the construction sector, for which a specific modality is created, the work contract disappears.
The discontinuous fixed contract provides, in the opinion of FADE, stability to the worker and favors “the replacement” of personnel in companies at times of the year when they periodically need to be reinforced. “Not all are advantages”, believes the employers: “Obligations in terms of “appeals” can become a stumbling block for companies.
