After a year of complicated negotiations, the Council of Ministers of Spain approved on Tuesday the Draft law that will reduce the working day, without the security of having a majority to approve the text in the Parliament. It will go from 40 to 37.5 hours per week in the private sector.
However, the draft law must return to the Council of Ministers to achieve parliamentary processing before it is in force, so it is expected to enter into force before December 31, 2025.
“It is a historic day” because “more than 41 years have passed” since the last reduction of “the working day in our country,” he said, at the press conference after the Council of Ministers, The Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díazparty leader Add.
The expectation for the reduction of the working day
“The reduction of the working day will serve To improve productivity in our country (…) It’s not about throwing [acumular] hours at work, It’s about being efficient“added the minister, who was responsible for leading this emblematic reform.
The text adopted on Tuesday by the Council of Ministers results from a Agreement signed on December 20 with the two main workers’ unions, UGT and CCOObut without the employer organizations, which decided in mid -November to leave the negotiating table, after eleven months of unsuccessful meetings.
The latter care about the impact of reform on Spanish competitiveness. They estimate that not all sectors of activity are on equal terms and that A generalized reduction of the working day could weaken some companies.
This argument was rejected by Díaz, who insisted on the solidity of the Spanish economy, with a growth of 3.2% last year. “We have more occupation and economic growth than ever,” he said.
What was agreed after the reduction of the working day was approved
In the government program sealed in October 2023, Add and the Socialist Party (PSOE) promised to reduce from 40 to 37.5 hours the legal duration of the weekly day before December 31, 2025, without loss of salary.
This reduction includes about 12 million private sector workersmainly in commerce, restoration or agriculture. This is so since 37.5 hours are already applied in the public sector and in large companies.
Now, the main challenge for the Government of Pedro Sánchez, which does not have the absolute majority in the Congress of Deputies, is to convince its parliamentary partners of the need for reform.
In fact, the measure awakens reluctance in the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) And, above all, among the Catalan independence of Junts per Catalunya (Jxcat)two allied formations of the Executive but close to business circles.
Source: Ambito
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