The debate on the reduction of the working day to 37.5 hours per week that the Government negotiates with unions and employers continues. For the vice president of the European Central Bank (ECB), “it would not be good from an economic point of view” to reduce the maximum hours that a worker can work per week. And he defends leaving the issue in the hands of unions and employers.
“It is much better to leave the specific situation of each of the companies to the social partners,” stressed the former Minister of Economy in statements to RNE. In this sense, he has indicated that the working day has been reducing in market economies and will continue to do so, since the number of hours has grown less than the number of employees has increased, “with which there is a reduction in workday”.
“The thing is that not all companies are the same. In a company with one or two employees, how do you reduce the working day? If you have 300 employees, yes you can do it. If you are a large company, yes you can do it,” she argued. In his opinion, the formula to reduce working hours “has to be fundamentally” through negotiation in each of the companies “because not all sectors are equal, nor are all companies equal.”
However, Guindos maintains that there is room to raise salaries in Spain “because a lot of purchasing power has been lost”, although he has warned that not all companies and sectors can do so equally. But, although salaries can increase in Spain, he has indicated that what we have to try is to increase productivity.
According to calculations by the union Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO.), if approved, the reduction of the working day to 37.5 hours would affect 10.3 million salaried workers in the private sector, 94% of the total, with special incidence in agriculture, hospitality and commerce. However, the first section of reduction to 38.5 hours by 2024 would have almost no effect on the working hours of workers covered by an agreement, since this stands at 1,758.16 hours compared to the 1,751.56 hours that It represents the average of the sectoral day agreed last year.
