Last October, the majority unions, CCOO and UGT, voted and approved, internally, the latest draft on the Scholarship Statute. However, Labor has promised to present a new text, where they take into account the points of the employers and which is expected to come into force in 2023.
Therefore, we are still waiting for the regulations that regulate non-labor practices to come to light. The expectation is high, since the scholarship holders had spent many years demanding laws that would give them certain rights during the development of their practices. To find out a little more about the future text, we have spoken with Gary Mullan, CEO of Prosperity Digital.
MuyPymes: What does the Statute for Scholars consist of?
Gary Mullan: On a practical level, it is an update of the labor regulations regarding scholarship holders. On a theoretical level, it aspires to achieve rights for this group that has historically been ignored as people in a kind of labor limbo, neither full-fledged workers, nor full-fledged apprentices. I believe that the good intention of the Statute is to be equal to other European legal frameworks and bring dignity to the figure of the scholarship holder.
MuyPymes: When and how will it be applied?
Gary Mullan: From what I understand, he still has a ways to go. At the moment there is a preliminary agreement and a draft. The employers do not agree on many points and I think they are going to try to include at least some sensitivities from the business world. If a draft agreement of sufficient consensus is finally reached, it must pass congressional approval. If that happens, which I understand it does, all the communities must assume it and the companies must abide by it when they want to hire interns.
MuyPymes: How will it influence interns and companies?
Gary Mullan: For the fellows, at first glance, it should represent a victory. From now on by law they will have to be paid and they will have the same rights as any worker. An unwanted effect of the statute may be that some or many companies stop having this figure due to the higher cost that it will entail. If that were the case, the possibilities for the scholarship holders would be reduced.
For companies, the ones that will be most impacted by the statute are those that counted on this figure to hire a lot of staff and chain as many contracts as possible as interns for the tax benefit. For the rest, I’m not sure there are so many use cases for this to be a debacle, from the employer’s point of view. Life will go on and probably this historically unrepresentative figure will continue to exist in companies.
VerySMEs: Is this statute going to reduce the hiring of junior profiles?
Gary Mullan: If it is not possible to chain internship contracts, and it is not possible to hire interns outside of an educational scheme either, I understand that what will happen is that companies will have to hire more junior profiles, not less. If there is really a need in the company to hire that or that “apprentice”, then it will be hired, regardless of the contract to which they can resort.
VerySMEs: How will it impact the ecosystem? digital?
Gary Mullan: The ecosystem digital it is very dynamic. Right now there are startups and large corporations that hire interns. In many cases, once the first months have passed, if they have worked, they are offered an indefinite contract, mainly due to the great shortage of profiles that are typically in high demand right now, such as SEO, UX/UI, PPC, Marketing Digital, etc. From our experience in prosperity Digital, as an agency purely specialized in this sector, the impact will be less, and in any case, positive. A little regulation in this sector is not bad.
VerySMEs: Will the interns’ responsibilities increase?
Gary Mullan: We suppose that it will depend on each company. What will happen is that, before starting the contractual relationship, these responsibilities will have to be clarified in advance, something that used to happen to a lesser extent.
