Business leaders speak out on obligation to provide customer service in Catalan throughout Spain

"Customer service in Catalan will be protected by law and the encroachment on the powers of the Generalitat will be prevented thanks to the introduction of an additional provision on the matter." With these words on Tuesday, Junts per Catalunya (the Catalan separatists) celebrated the agreement with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's PSOE to introduce changes to the bill that regulates customer services. According to Puigdemont's party, this modification will "guarantee the right of citizens to be attended to in Catalan by companies". However, the reply from business owners and employers was that this protection "is irresponsible and will entail additional costs".

While awaiting the final text and clarification of the scope of the agreement, for now it is known that companies with a workforce of more than 250 employees, or with a turnover of more than 50 million euros, will be required to respond in Catalan or another co-official language to any query, complaint or claim. "It's as irresponsible as if the EU were to force all European companies to respond in all the official languages of the union," declares Lorenzo Amor, president of the national federation of self-employed workers' associations (ATA). According to preliminary reports, the wording of the amendment establishes that a company based outside of Catalonia must, by law, respond in Catalan to queries, claims or complaints made by a customer in Catalan. "The right of the consumer to be attended to in Catalan is prioritised and does not depend on the goodwill of the company or its location," was the Junts' celebratory statement yesterday.

Employers and business leaders, who are awaiting the final text and whether the change to the bill will continue its parliamentary process, are "concerned about the increased bureaucratic burden it may entail and, above all, the increased costs and loss of competitiveness", sources from the employers' association told SUR. The first calculations made by ATA point to a "1.5% increase in labour costs for a company with 250 employees".

This measure affects all utility companies (electricity, gas and water) and those in telecomms, aeronautics, transport, postal services and audiovisual platforms, plus all financial institutions and insurance companies.

Spain's leading employers' association CEOE has expressed an even more critical stance: its business leaders consider it "unacceptable to mix politics with business initiatives", arguing that "it is essential to respect management autonomy, a characteristic of any private company."

In a scenario they describe as one of "greater fiscal pressure and increased social costs for companies", they warn that the measure would force companies in strategic sectors of public interest "to offer customer service in Catalan, which would generate additional expenses and a loss of productivity", something that, in their opinion, "the government does not seem to value".

In their opinion, "far from protecting the common interest, the government is interfering in entrepreneurial freedom solely to satisfy nationalists and keep itself in power. Imposing such burdens, procedures, costs and obstacles for purely political reasons is unacceptable."

The Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption and the 2030 Agenda states that the law is still being negotiated with parliamentary groups and, according to Minister Pablo Bustinduy, its "intention is to be able to guarantee the use of co-official languages where they are recognised as such". In this context, he stressed that the measure will only affect large companies and not small businesses such as "a hardware store".