The debate for Reduction of the working day in Uruguay is put back on the table in the middle of the electoral campaign and after having had few concrete results in its previous chapter. Now, based on a proposal from the pre-candidate for the Colorado Party Tabare Vierathe competitors in the internal elections of their respective parties take the lead regarding their opinion on these issues.
“Work to live and not live to work.” This is how Viera expressed himself when proposing to reduce the working day during his first campaign event in Montevideo. “Not only must the job and salary be decent, but also the right to leisure”, he noted, explaining that the idea should not be detrimental to salary or productivity.
The proposal is not new, nor in the public debate: last year, following the commemorations for the Labor Dayhe PIT-CNT began to demand the reduction of the current working day from 48 hours to 40 hours; and the deputy of Frente Amplio, Daniel Caggiani, presented a bill in this regard. However, the initiative was relegated in the political discussion compared to other issues understood to be more urgent.
In any case, at that time there were many voices that expressed themselves for and against the reduction of the working day. Among them, the president himself Luis Lacalle Pou, who was willing to debate but announced that it did not seem “appropriate or practicable.”
Now opinions are also beginning to rise after Viera’s renewal of the proposal, although the discussion takes on another nuance in the midst of the election campaignand is positioned as one of the possible axes of the debate in the coming months.
For Orsi it is an opportunity for analysis
The candidate for the Frente Amplio, Yamandu Orsi, was consulted about Viera’s idea of applying the model 100-80-100 that England implemented a year ago — “100% of the salary, 80% of the working time and 100% of productivity,” as the Colorado native explained — and he maintained that he “loved” the idea. “I loved starting to discuss it,” he clarified.
Orsi had already joined the debate on the previous occasion, when he considered that the initiative should be attended to but in a different order of priorities: first the fight “over salaries and jobs,” and then the possibility of reducing the working day, in what he understood as the search for “new alternatives so that work, of course, continues to provide dignity and be the engine of growth and development”.
“Coming from Tabaré Viera, whom I know from Congress of Mayors“I know it could be a nice opportunity to sit down one day and analyze it,” the Frente-Amplista candidate considered on Tuesday. “He also says, and I agree, that he has to have the productivity component incorporated, and of course, in the world it is being discussed like this,” he remarked.
The truth is that the idea of capping the working day at 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week is an initiative that in the Popular Participation Movement (MPP), Orsi’s political space, is taken into account. Caggiani, who presented the bill, is also part of the sector; and the former president Jose Mujica He expressed himself in favor of a 6-hour work day.
Job creation is a priority for Raffo
The pre-candidate for National Party, Laura Raffo, was also consulted about Viera’s proposal, but considered that “the fundamental thing has to be creating jobs.” “What people throughout the country are asking us to do is that in addition to the 80,000 jobs that this government has created, we continue to create jobs,” he added.
“That they not only give Uruguayans the possibility of paying rent, having a home, making purchases, supporting their children, but also jobs that allow them to generate savings, fulfill dreams, celebrate their 15th birthday.” of your daughter, take a vacation with your loved ones,” he noted.
In that sense, Raffo was clear about her position at this incipient stage of the debate: “Our program is going to focus on creation of more jobs and not in the reduction of the working day.”
The MTSS is working on an in-depth analysis of the reduction of working hours
For whom Viera’s proposal came as a surprise was the Minister of Work and Social Security (MTSS), Pablo Mieres. “I am concerned that we begin in the campaign stage to propose a little bit of everything. We take seriously the proposal made by the PIT-CNT in May of last year to reduce the working day and we said that we had to start on the right path, that is to improve the productivity”, he pointed out, in this regard.
Regarding this, he recalled that, as he had already considered last year, it is necessary to improve productivity so that the salary remains the same in fewer hours of work. Last year, he had described the reduction in working hours as “a shot in the foot” if it was not associated with an increase in productivity.
In any case, Mieres assured that the issue is already being analyzed in the Ministry, together with businessmen and unions. “We installed a workgroup To discuss productivity, this has been working for a month now. It will develop measures with input from employers, workers and the Ministry of Labor, and then those results can reach a destination where there may be a reduction in the working day,” he explained.
Source: Ambito
