Yolanda Díaz

Yolanda Díaz Pérez (born 6 May 1971) is a Spanish politician and lawyer specialised in Labor law,[1] serving as Minister of Labour and Social Economy since 2020. A member of the Congress of Deputies since 2016, she has previously been a former Ferrol municipal councillor (2003–2012) and member of the Parliament of Galicia (2012–2016). She was the National Coordinator of Esquerda Unida (EU) from 2005 to 2017.

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Díaz and the second or maternal family name is Pérez.
The Most Excellent

Yolanda Díaz
Díaz in 2020
Minister of Labour and Social Economy
Assumed office
13 January 2020
MonarchFelipe VI
Prime MinisterPedro Sánchez
Preceded byMagdalena Valerio
(Labour, Migration and Social Security)
Member of the Congress of Deputies
Assumed office
13 January 2016
ConstituencyA Coruña
Member of the Parliament of Galicia
In office
2012–2016
ConstituencyA Coruña
Personal details
Born
Yolanda Díaz Pérez

(1971-05-06) 6 May 1971
Fene (A Coruña), Galicia, Spain
NationalitySpanish
Political party
Alma materUniversity of Santiago de Compostela
Occupation

Biography

Born in San Valentín, Fene, on 6 May 1971, next to the mammoth shipyard of Astilleros y Talleres del Noroeste (ASTANO), she is a member of a family of renowned trade unionists in Galicia active in the anti-francoist militancy.[2][3][4] She joined the Communist Party at an early age.[4] Díaz obtained a licentiate degree in Law at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC),[5][6] and after earning three post-graduate degrees, she started to work as paralegal for a law firm, later registering as lawyer and opening her own law firm, specialising in labor law.[5]

She entered institutional politics in 2003, when she became member of the Ferrol municipal council.[7] In 2005, she was elected leader (National Coordinator) of Esquerda Unida (EU), the Galician federation of United Left (IU).[8] She stood as candidate in the list of the Galician Left Alternative (AGE) coalition between EU and Anova vis-à-vis the October 2012 Galician regional election,[7][n. 1] becoming a member of the 9th Parliament of Galicia in representation of A Coruña. She ran in the En Marea list for the 2015 general election becoming a member of the 11th term of the Lower House of the Spanish parliament. She has renovated her seat at the 2016, April 2019 and November 2019 general elections, running respectively as candidate for the En Marea, En Común–Unidas Podemos and Galicia en Común alliances. She left the role of Coordinator General of EU in June 2017, being replaced by Eva Solla.[9]

Following the failure in the talks to reach a coalition government between the PSOE and Unidas Podemos in the Summer of 2019, Díaz—who positioned herself in favour of such prospect unlike other voices within IU, proposing just to invest Pedro Sánchez and reach a common programme for government—distanced herself from IU over discrepancies on how IU had handled the negotiations and eventually left the party in October 2019, while she remained a member of the PCE.[10]

Appointed as Minister of Labour and Social Economy of the Sánchez II Government, she was sworn in on 13 January 2020.[11] Díaz, who put the struggle against precarious work as the main goal of her mandate, vowed then to repeal the 2012 labour market reform.[11] She chose Joaquín Pérez Rey to hold to post the Secretary of State for Labour and Social Economy, effectively the number 2 in the Ministry.[12]

As Minister of Labour, she took part in the negotiation that achieved the increase in the minimum wage to 950 euros, as well as the derogation of the dismissal for medical leave.[13][14] She also took part in the dispatch of labor inspections to the agricultural sector to monitor the working conditions of workers in the sector.[15] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she was responsible to negotiate the layoffs (in Spanish Expediente de Regulación Temporal de Empleo; ERTE) and its extensions, as well as the creation of the Law on Telecommuting (in Spanish, Ley del Teletrabajo).[16]

References
Informational notes
  1. She hired a still rather unknown Pablo Iglesias Turrión as aid for the electoral campaign.[4]
Citations
  1. Olías, Laura (9 January 2020). "Yolanda Díaz, la abogada laboralista gallega que tomará las riendas del Ministerio de Trabajo". eldiario.es.
  2. Bustabad, Lorena (25 February 2009). "Yolanda Díaz, la niña del PCE". El País.
  3. Pillado, Rafael (1 September 2012). "Yolanda Díaz, giro a la izquierda". elpais.com. El País.
  4. Junquera, Natalia (5 January 2019). "Yolanda Díaz, la política que fichó a Iglesias como asesor". www.elpais.com. El País.
  5. Hernández, Nuria (4 December 2019). "Así es Yolanda Díaz, posible nueva ministra de Trabajo: de familia sindicalista, con tres posgrados e íntima de Irene Montero". www.revistavanityfair.es. Vanity Fair.
  6. "Díaz Pérez, Yolanda". www.congreso.es. Congress of Deputies.
  7. "Yolanda Díaz deja su escaño en Ferrol para ir a la cámara autonómica". www.diariodeferrol.com. Diario de Ferrol. 24 October 2012.
  8. "Yolanda Díaz dejará de liderar Esquerda Unida a partir de junio". www.farodevigo.es. Faro de Vigo. 26 April 2017.
  9. Rodríguez, Ricardo; Pena, Aida (2 June 2017). "Yolanda Díaz deja la coordinadora de Esquerda Unida tras doce años". cadenaser.com. Cadena Ser.
  10. Riveiro, Aitor (15 July 2020). "Yolanda Díaz se dio de baja de IU en 2019 por discrepancias durante las negociaciones fallidas con el PSOE". eldiario.es.
  11. Pascual Cortés, Raquel (1 January 2020). "Escrivá avanza que reducirá el déficit de la Seguridad Social de forma "rápida" y abordará el sistema de pensiones privadas". Cinco Días (in Spanish). Retrieved 13 January 2020.
  12. LaInformacion. "Yolanda Díaz elige al 'duro' Joaquín Pérez Rey como secretario de Estado de Trabajo". La Información (in Spanish). Retrieved 13 January 2020.
  13. "El Gobierno, sindicatos y patronal acuerdan subir el salario mínimo hasta los 950 euros". El HuffPost. 22 January 2020.
  14. "Despido por bajas médicas: Llega el fin del polémico artículo que lo permite". La Vanguardia. 18 February 2020.
  15. Olías, Laura (1 July 2020). "La Inspección de Trabajo realizará 10.000 visitas a empresas en una campaña para detectar fraude en los ERTE". El Diario.
  16. Olías, Aitor Riveiro, Laura (25 September 2020). "Yolanda Díaz, la ministra comunista que arma acuerdos con patronal y sindicatos". ElDiario.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 28 November 2020.
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