Working in Spain

By Jason Moore
THE last time I was in London I was amazed to see that almost half of the staff of the hotel where I was staying were Spanish, infact there was even one Majorcan. It is a sad state of affairs when young Spaniards have to head abroad to work in hotels when Spain probably has more hotels per capita of the population than many European states. Youth unemployment is a major problem in Spain not helped by the outdated labour laws which mean that many companies are unable to part company with their older staff because they can´t afford the redundancy package. The Spanish government has tried to make it easier for companies to make staff redundant but still the costs are high. As a direct result many firms in Spain and ofcourse the civil service, having an ageing workforce and hundreds of thousands of young Spaniards are on the dole. As a result of the labour laws and the recession you will now find hundreds of thousands of young Spaniards working abroad. My daughter´s nurse at the local medical centre has recently moved to New Zealand and her colleague is actively trying to get a job in Britain. In some ways they are lucky, because they have a job but they say that the working conditions and the pay structure is awful. Spain needs to take action and fast. Asizeable part of a whole generation is moving abroad and some may never return. Vital skills are being lost because of low pay and stupid labour laws. A sad state of affairs.