The Ministry of Labour has agreed to delay the reduction in working hours: the maximum working day will go from 40 to 38 and a half hours in 2025 (compared to 2024 as agreed in the government pact) and 37 and a half hours will be reached from 31 December 2025. “That is, in 2026,” explained Maricruz Vicente, Secretary of Trade Union Action and Employment of CCOO.
The unions have explained that this timetable is part of the approach of the Labour Department to the social partners in the last two meetings, given the delay in the negotiations, which have already lasted nine months, and to try to involve the employers in a tripartite agreement.
However, the Secretary of State for Labour, Joaquín Pérez Rey, later denied this option.
This is the only new development that the unions have shared at the end of the social dialogue meeting on the reduction of working hours that was held on Tuesday. Union sources have specified that the measure also depends on the willingness of the employers to reach an agreement, something that CCOO and UGT have not yet seen come to fruition. The parties have agreed to meet again on October 11.
The Ministry held this new meeting after proposing aid to SMEs at the beginning of the month to try to attract entrepreneurs. This ‘SME plan 37.5’ was further specified on Tuesday, although the Secretary of State, Joaquín Pérez Rey, did not want to detail any elements so as not to interfere in the negotiation. “We continue to trust in an agreement on social dialogue,” said Pérez Rey.
Mobilizations next Thursday
Although on Tuesday the negotiators spoke of a “good tone” and perhaps a “more favourable” climate at the negotiating table, in recent days both the unions and the employers had raised the tone. Comisiones Obreras and UGT speak of “a joke” and “blockage” by the employers after months of talks, while they prepare the mobilizations announced for this Thursday in front of the CEOE headquarters.
The unions added that negotiations cannot be delayed.without the“Therefore, if employers are not willing to negotiate, they will ask the Government to regulate on its own the commitment to reduce the working day to 37 and a half hours.
For his part, the leader of the employers’ association, Antonio Garamendi, has claimed the freedom of the business community to reject the measure. “We are always told that we are the powerful. The powerful is the one who has the Official State Gazette (BOE). Let them do it, but that breaks the whole development since 1977 of major agreements when that is what collective bargaining is for,” said the president of the CEOE.
The PP sneaks into the negotiations
This Tuesday, a new player has even entered the debate: the PP. After announcing yesterday its proposal for greater “freedom” for paternity leave, this Tuesday Alberto Núñez Feijóo has announced that he is open to negotiating the reduction of working hours, although his approach is far from what is being negotiated at the moment.
Feijóo has advocated working four days but more hours, “9 hours or 9.5 hours”, and not as a general measure for all workers, but rather only applicable to some sectors and without affecting “productivity”, he said. This will be one of the issues that the leader of the PP will address with the social agents soon, with whom he has requested a meeting.
Vice President Yolanda Díaz has responded that she maintains her willingness to negotiate the reduction of the working day with “all political parties,” except for the far-right Vox, as she has done with other regulations. “The question is: who is going to be against a measure that is positive for the country and benefits the people?” Díaz said.
Source: www.eldiario.es
