Quality Employment. A View from the Barcelona Economic and Social Council

Eduardo Rojo Torrecilla

President of the CESB

October 16, 2025

1. I thank the organizers of this Conference for inviting me to participate as a speaker on quality employment, with a special focus on the reality of Barcelona and Catalonia, which, in my opinion, cannot be separated in any way from the international, European and Spanish reality. 

My presentation is based on various works, conferences, and articles that I have published for several years in specialized journals and on my blog. 

2. The ILO speaks to us about decent or dignified work http://www.eduardorojotorrecilla.es/2022/11/el-trabajo-decente-o-digno-pasar-de-las.html

ILO Director-General Juan Somavía presented the Report to the 1999 International Conference, entitled "Decent Work." The prologue stated that it proposed "a primary objective for the ILO in this time of global transition, namely, the availability of decent work for men and women throughout the world. It is the most widespread need, shared by individuals, families, and communities in every type of society and level of development. Decent work is a global demand that confronts political and business leaders around the world. Our common future depends largely on how we meet this challenge." 

Since then, numerous documents have been drawn up on decent work, broadly defined as "productive work for men and women in conditions of freedom, equity, security, and human dignity." This has now been embodied in country-specific decent work programs (DWPs). These programs are based on four pillars: job creation and business development, social protection, standards and rights at work, and governance and social dialogue. 

3. Concern for achieving decent work for all is also present in the Declaration to be adopted at the Second World Summit for Social Development http://www.eduardorojotorrecilla.es/2025/10/segunda-cumbre-mundial-para-el.html to be held in Doha next November, which recognises that ‘the three central themes of social development, namely poverty eradication, full and productive employment and decent work for all, and social integration, are interrelated and mutually reinforcing and that it is therefore necessary to create an enabling environment for the simultaneous achievement of all three goals’.  

4. The European Union is committed to achieving quality employment and announces the adoption of regulatory measures to achieve this goal. A) Speech by the Executive Vice President of the European Commission, Roxana Mînzatu, at the Opening of the Porto Social Forum on September 18 http://www.eduardorojotorrecilla.es/2025/09/eurofound-encuesta-europea-sobre-las.html

“In this Commission, we have prioritized the development of a Roadmap for Quality Jobs. And, as President von der Leyen announced last week in her State of the Union Address, at the heart of this roadmap will be a Quality Jobs Act. 

This roadmap will have three simple and compelling objectives. 

First: defend and strengthen labor rights. Ensure that all workers, especially the most vulnerable, have a fair wage, safe working conditions, and dignity. 

Second: seize the digital revolution. Seize its opportunities to increase innovation and productivity, while avoiding its risks: job insecurity and reduced protection. 

Third: prepare for change. Help both workers and employers manage transitions. Deliver on our promise to leave no one behind.” 

B) We continue at the European level, paying attention to the European Working Conditions Survey 2024. First results, from Eurofound http://www.eduardorojotorrecilla.es/2025/09/eurofound-encuesta-europea-sobre-las.html

“Trends in job quality” 

The concept of job quality has evolved over several decades. Previous approaches tended to emphasize dimensions such as salary, type of employment contract, social protection coverage, working hours, and health and safety. Over time, the concept has been enriched to include aspects of work such as autonomy, work intensity, skill use, and exposure to psychosocial risks. The objective was to capture both the job resources and job demands of workers, as well as the benefits for the companies and organizations that employ them. 

Eurofound considers job quality as a set of characteristics of work and employment that impact, positively or negatively, the health and well-being of workers. This is measured at the job level through seven dimensions of job quality (each measured by an index) that capture these characteristics: 

• Physical environment
• Social environment
• Quality of work time
• Work intensity
• Skills and discretion
• Prospects
• Income 

Job quality is clearly multidimensional. It's not just one aspect that makes a job good. 

5. If we focus on the Spanish state framework, we must refer to the Spanish Strategy for Active Employment Support 2025-2028 3 

http://www.eduardorojotorrecilla.es/2025/07/estrategia-espanola-de-apoyo-activo-al.html and the Annual Plan for the Promotion of Decent Employment 2025 http://www.eduardorojotorrecilla.es/2025/07/plan-anual-de-fomento-del-empleo-digno.html . The Strategy sets out eight strategic objectives, which are specified for this year in the Plan. These are: to promote the implementation of guaranteed services for individuals; to provide actions and programmes tailored to key groups; positioning public employment services as key intermediaries; promoting comprehensive support for businesses; increasing the capacities of public employment services; promoting participation with entities collaborating with public employment services; increasing the scope and relevance of gender equality in the regulatory and programmatic framework of active employment policies and in common and specific programmes and services; and, finally, contribute to the elimination of inequalities in employment and occupational segregation, institutionalise evaluation and improve planning and instruments in employment policies, facilitating labour market analysis with systems for collecting, assessing and disseminating information and its results. 

6. Let's now look at Catalonia. 

A) Of particular interest is a recent resolution https://www.parlament.cat/document/bopc/434572596.pdf approved by the regional parliament at the proposal of the Socialist parliamentary group and united to move forward. 

1. “1. The Parliament of Catalonia recognizes the need for quality employment in Catalonia and appreciates the role of trade union organizations in ensuring safer, more democratic, fairer, and more productive workplaces, as demonstrated in the most advanced economies in the region, particularly in light of the profound changes being experienced by the Catalan production model.
2. The Parliament of Catalonia recognizes the need to strengthen freedom of association and collective bargaining, ensuring that digitalization and artificial intelligence do not violate fundamental rights. Decisions based on algorithmic information in the workplace must be transparent, auditable, and subject to human oversight.
3. The Parliament of Catalonia stands in solidarity with the trade union movement in those areas of the European Union and the rest of the world where it has received threats; it recalls that trade union rights —including the right to strike— and collective bargaining have been key to achieving fairer agreements in the workplace, which have led to a fairer labor market and more just and socially cohesive societies, and recognizes their important role in the process of democratization of the labor market. The Catalan Parliament will continue to promote policies and legislate to achieve equal pay and opportunities between women and men in the workplace. This includes addressing the wage gap, seeking to eliminate all forms of discrimination in the labor market, and improving the working conditions and pay of feminized sectors.
4. The Catalan Parliament, within the framework of the global trade war and the ecological and digital transitions, will defend a Europe-wide industrial strategy that creates better jobs, guarantees social progress and climate action, protects labor rights, and promotes social dialogue and collective bargaining.
5. The Catalan Parliament will guarantee equal rights for all in the workplace, including the effective regulation of labor intermediaries, the limitation of abusive subcontracting, and the implementation of joint and several liability in the subcontracting chain.
6. The Catalan Parliament calls for consolidating the Catalan labor relations framework through collective bargaining and social dialogue as the backbone, a negotiation that is responsive to the needs of the population. of citizens and businesses, which must serve to improve working conditions and reduce precariousness.”
7. B) Much more recently, during the general policy debate in the regional parliament, a resolution http://www.eduardorojotorrecilla.es/2025/10/parlament-de-catalunya-debat-de.html presented by the Socialist parliamentary group and United to Advance was approved. Among other measures, it urges the Catalan government to "strengthen the Catalan Public Employment Service (SOC) to make it a benchmark tool for agile and competitive job placement, serving businesses and workers. Therefore, the specialized team supporting businesses will be expanded, with the mission of responding to talent needs, ensuring that Catalonia has a strong, inclusive public employment placement system adapted to new economic and employment challenges." 

7. Let us now turn to the pillars on which the agreement for quality employment in Barcelona 2021-2030 https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/economiatreball/ca/que-fem/ocupacio-empresa-emprenedoria-i-innovacio/acord-barcelona-locupacio-de-qualitat is based, as they appear in the ABOC presentation document, closely interrelated with the previous explanation and accompanied by some notes from me. 

- Job stability. 

Labor Reform (RDL 32/2021 of 28.12) 

- Adequate Minimum Wages 

SMI. Directive (EU) 2022/2041, of 19.10, on adequate minimum wages in the EU 

Adequate Working Hours and Flexible Working Conditions 

Directive (EU) 2019/1152 of 20 June on transparent and predictable working conditions in the EU 

Continuing Education and Training 

Employment Law. Active Employment Policies. EU General Guidelines for the Employment Policies of the Member States 

Professional Promotion and Recognition 

Workers' Statute Law. Collective Bargaining. 

Work Organization and Reconciliation of Work, Family, and Personal Life 

LET (reforms of 2019 and 2023). Constitutional Court rulings. Directive (EU) 2019/1158 of 20 June 2019 on the reconciliation of working and family life for parents and carers, Health, ethics, and safety at work 

Reform of the Law on the Prevention of Occupational Risks. Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 of 13 June 2024 establishing harmonized standards on artificial intelligence 

Labor representation and protection of labor rights 

Possible reform of Title II of the LET (Ley de Ley Laboral). 

Focus on the incorporation of young people into the labor market  

Employment Law. Council Recommendation of 30 October 2020 on a bridge to employment: strengthening the Youth Guarantee. 

Diversity and non-discrimination 

Employment Law. Comprehensive Law 15/2022 of 12 July on equal treatment and non-discrimination. Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation. Law 4/2000 of 11 January (as amended) on the rights and freedoms of foreign nationals and their social integration. 

8. And now, let's move beyond the international, EU, Catalan, and Barcelona documents to formulate some final reflections http://www.eduardorojotorrecilla.es/2025/09/interrogantes-sobre-la-vida-laboral-y.html as proposals on what is necessary to continue advancing in the search for quality employment. 

What do I consider important to properly understand and take into consideration? 

1. Pay special attention to the reality of the world of work, a snapshot that is not fixed and is increasingly changing, with the obligation to reflect on how labor standards are applied when there are work sectors where formal employment is minimal (voluntary or involuntary) and where informality is the rule.
2. Reflect while taking into account the legal framework and avoiding "vague" and "generic" concepts that require practical concretion. In my opinion, it's of little use to talk, for example, about "adequate" working hours and wages if we don't first understand the legal and conventional regulatory framework and the economic reality of each territorial area, in order to provide an "adequate" response.
3. The importance of addressing the transformation of the labor market and the impact that digitalization and task automation have on it, and specifically on employment, to make proposals and recommendations that aim to improve both business activity and the working conditions of workers. Who directs and controls technological change? Where can it be directed?
4. The importance of bipartite and tripartite social dialogue, a fundamental element in labor relations, and how to address the social and economic inequalities that fracture and divide our societies. It is absolutely necessary to closely monitor how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are being implemented and their impact on employment and the reduction of inequalities.
5. The importance of a just transition in the face of ecological, digital, and demographic changes. What does this mean for companies? And for workers?
6. The importance of ensuring that international standards (e.g., ILO Conventions) are applied throughout the value chain of transnational corporations.
7. The importance of analyzing data not in a general way but by sector, given the real importance of each sector. The importance of company size in determining what type of employment policies should be implemented and to whom (employers and workers) they should be directed to achieve their objectives, with particular importance placed on regular and periodic evaluation of these measures.
8. The importance of equality and diversity policies, which should lead to integration policies, taking into account the changing and diverse composition of the current world of work, with special attention to avoiding discriminatory bias based on gender and age.
9. The importance of real understanding of the positive phenomenon of immigration and migratory flows.
10. The importance of time policies that emphasize both the length (a quantitative aspect) of the workday and the conditions (a qualitative aspect) under which it is carried out, especially to balance work, family, and personal life.
11. The importance of training, talent acquisition, and retention policies. We know that adequate training for new production needs is essential for workers to enter the labor market, in some cases, and re-adapt, in others. It is necessary to understand how public authorities, employers, and workers are acting to achieve training objectives that are beneficial for all parties involved, and especially for those who most need to improve their training levels. Special attention should be paid to those who have difficulty entering or remaining in the labor market. 

Thank you very much for your attention.