La flexibilidad laboral en la industria auxiliar del automóvil de Cataluña
Authors: Llorente-Galera Francisco 
Published: May 2021

El presente artículo en su parte teórica resume las características de las tipologías de flexibilidad laboral, sus ventajas e inconvenientes. Posteriormente se presentan los resultados de un análisis empírico donde se analiza para una muestra de empresas proveedoras directas de los fabricantes de automóviles, localizadas en Cataluña, la intensidad de implantación individual y conjunta de diversas formas de flexibilidad laboral, el grado de correlación entre las mismas, y contrastar si hay diferencias significativas en la medida de posición central de cada modalidad de flexibilidad laboral según la nacionalidad del capital, tamaño empresarial, subsector, tipo de producto, año de constitución y número de factorías.Palabras clave: automóvil, proveedores, flexiblidad, trabajo, Cataluña.Labor flexibility in Catalonia automotive auxiliary industryAbstract: This paper collects diverse literature about labor flexibility and presents briefly the main features and advantages of labor flexibility typologies incorporating companies in the automotive sector. In the empirical part it is analyzed for a sample of direct suppliers of automotive manufacturers, geographically located in Catalonia, the degree of implementation different forms of labor flexibility, making a descriptive statistical analysis of each item calculating the mean, quartiles, standard deviation and sample proportion for them and obtaining confidence intervals of population mean of quantitative variables. It is verified the degree of association between pairs of combinations with the Pearson correlation coefficient (for quantitative variables), Spearman (if ordinal variables) or phi and V Cramer (if nominal), in which sample proportion they are incorporated individually and jointly. Moreover it is tested whether there are significant differences according to central tendency of each type of flexibility considered, differing according to the nationality of capital (foreign-owned enterprise versus national-owned enterprise). From the results it is highlight that companies have implemented a significant outsourcing, using the ratio: supplies / operating income, while the rate of temporary employment is not usually high (most of firms do not exceed 10%). In the functional flexibility is obtained high implementation of job rotation but almost half have not incorporated teamwork in their production area, despite the advantages. Temporal flexibility is more demanded by the company management of companies but in reality is not generally applied to a large degree, unless the item number of shifts (most are at least three shifts). Working at weekends and on holidays are implemented with intermediate intensity and in most companies, the implementation of the irregular distribution of working hours (annual hours / working time accounts scheme), that enable reduce employment layoffs in times of crisis, and setting the hours of the working day by production level are zero or low in most firms. Few companies incorporate at least intermediate types simultaneously temporal flexibility. No company has incorporated highly together and all items of functional and temporal flexibility The geographical flexibility is very limited and wage flexibility are also zero or reduced in most companies, with a traditional salary structure and few companies incorporate variable supplements according to the benefit of the company, worker’s ability, quality and objectives achieved by the team. The correlation among labor flexibility dimensions, when there is, it tends to be low and in any pair of items is high. Therefore, it is necessary that companies seek for a greater integration among the types of labor flexibility. Most firms require greater joint incorporation of labor flexibility dimensions to achieve complementarities and synergies. It was searched significant differences according to central position of each flexibility item, segmenting on the nationality of the capital (national- owned enterprise or foreign-owned enterprise), firm size, type of product (module, system and component, piece or par t of piece), subsector, year established, and number of factories.Keywords: automotive, suppliers, flexibility, labour, Catalonia.