Reception Guide

Traders and businesspeople are entitled to be members of business and traders' associations and professional guilds (gremis professionals) . Those organisations provide their members with information on changes in laws, innovations in their sector of economic activity, and fairs and marketing events involving the different areas of production related to their business. Such associations and guilds also protect the collective rights and exercise a positive influence on the activity of their members. Furthermore, they represent a way of actively participating in Catalan society.

Unions (sindicats) are stable organisations formed by workers who decide to join together to protect their economic interests and obtain the best social and working conditions possible. Through unions, workers are able to make collective and specific demands (reivindicacions) relating to wages, working hours and conditions, general quality of life, etc. Membership of a union strengthens the position of workers as regards ensuring that legal guarantees are fulfilled, as well as with a view to improving and extending those guarantees.

Information on all the organisations in question and the production sectors and working activities in which they specialise (metallurgy, construction, agriculture, geriatrics, trade, hotels and catering, domestic services, etc.) is available from your regional office of the Catalan Ministry of Enterprise and Employment (Departament d’Empresa i Ocupació), from municipal citizen services offices (Oficines Municipals d'Atenció al Ciutadà or OAC) or from chambers of commerce and industry (cambres de Comerç i Indústria) .

Information on business federations can be found at
http://www.ceoe.es
http://www.pimec.es

For information on unions, see
http://www.ctescat.cat/enllacos/14/index.html