The Ministry of Labor has called for next week, Thursday, January 25, the first social dialogue meeting for the reduction of working hours, one of the commitments of the PSOE-Sumar Government agreement that Vice President Yolanda Díaz wants to accelerate.
It is not an issue that is to the liking of companies, with a board of directors of the CEOE that this morning debated the issue and considered that it is a new increase in costs, added to the increase in the minimum wage (SMI). The employers suggest that they should be dealt with by sectors in collective bargaining.
Regarding the reduction of working hours, the novelty is not only the date of the call, but there is another significant element, and that is that Work, in addition to the length of the working day, will propose a reinforcement of the time control of companies. They see it as another way to reduce the working day in practice. Sources from the department have stated that it will be one of the points that they will announce in the first meeting on this issue with unions and employers. An initiative they take when they consider that the current time registration system is too “lax” and that it does not fulfill its functions.
It is a system that was established in 2019, with Magdalena Valerio at the head of the Ministry of Labor, in a monochrome PSOE government, which forces companies to keep track of their employees’ hours based on a record of the working day. Five years later, its application is not adequate according to the current Labor officials, which is why they propose its reform. For the moment, they have not specified how they will approach it, whether by reforming the current system, establishing a new one or increasing sanctions to ensure compliance.
The commitment of the Government agreement between PSOE and Sumar includes reducing the working day for this year from 40 to 38.5 hours per week, to go to 37.5 hours in 2025. A position that the unions love, but that will be strongly opposed by the employers. The negotiation will start next week, taking the lead in another pending negotiation, that of unemployment benefits, after the regulations were overturned by the Congress of Deputies.
The news has taken the CEOE by surprise, which did not expect this approach. Without knowing the precise proposal, they point out that if it is applied to the current system, it could make the process more laborious. However, they also recognize that adding this new piece to the board can turn it into a bargaining chip for negotiating the workday.
