Hundreds protest Spain labour reform

Hundreds of people protested in Madrid Friday against new looser hiring and firing laws introduced by the conservative government, its latest measures to deal with the country’s economic crisis.

Protestors shouting and waving banners gathered on the Puerta del Sol, the central square that has been a focal point for a wave of social protests since May last year.

“General strike!” they yelled. “Get up and fight!”

Demonstrators also waved banners reading “Against the labour reforms. We are not merchandise for politicians and markets” and “Your fake crisis breaks the social pact.”

The protest, much smaller than other recent demonstrations against public spending cuts, was the first public expression of dissent against the labour reforms announced earlier Friday.

In the reform, the government slashed employees’ maximum severance pay and offers contracts with various incentives which it says will encourage the hiring of young workers.

“There are going to be … cheaper redundancies and conditions that are obviously worse for workers. Unemployment is going to rise because they are making it easier and cheaper to fire people, said one demonstrator, Javier Baredes, 53, who works in telemarketing.

The government came to power in November elections on promises to cut Spain’s unemployment rate, which reached nearly 23 percent at the end of 2011 — the highest in the industrialised world.

It has warned that things will get worse before they get better, as it passed deficit and banking reforms and continued the public spending cuts started by the last government which have prompted a series of protests.

“It is the last straw,” said another demonstrator, Eugenia Perez, 53, who is unemployed, of Friday’s labour reform. “They are condemning us to misery and hunger.”