Health Crisis and Labour Markets in Globalised Capitalism: The Spanish Social Labour Intervention Model During COVID-19

Abstract

On 14 March 2020, the Spanish Government declared a state of alarm to manage the health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This led to the implementation of measures to confine the population and contain economic activities, with significant socio-labour consequences. Faced with this emergency scenario, the labour intervention actions carried out by the Spanish Administration were striking and unique, with the aim of maintaining employment and preventing its massive destruction. At the same time, a new stage of transition began in the Spanish labour market, where the acceleration in the application of new information technologies and the processes of economic globalisation meant changes in the organisation of work in order to face the new economic challenges. The success of the model of labour market intervention and employment protection organised by the Spanish Administration in that unavoidable health crisis is examined here as an effective example for future emergencies, which the WHO is advertising can happen again.