The message from the vice president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, has been clear. The reduction of working hours will be done with or without the employer; That is, social dialogue will be attempted, but if the CEOE does not join, the measure will be taken without them. She stated this this morning in her appearance at the Labor Committee of the Congress of Deputies during which she presented her agenda during this legislature with two central points, this reduction in working hours and the modification of dismissal so that it is dissuasive.
Regarding the reduction of the working day, which the Government has in a program to reduce this year to 38.5 hours and in 2025 to 37.5 hours, Labor will hold its first meeting with unions and employers on the issue this Thursday. On the table there will be a reduction in working hours and also the modification of time control, which Labor considers “loose” in its current formulation.
The vice president affirms that she would like the agreement to reduce working time to have unions and employers, but without ruling out doing it only on two sides, without the CEOE. “I would like it to be tripartite, if it cannot be tripartite, it will be bipartite, but we are going to do it, yes, within the framework of social dialogue,” Díaz said. That is to say, it may have the same resolution as last week’s negotiation for a 5% increase in the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI) for this year, with the support of the unions, but with the employers withdrawing from the consensus.
A decision that Yolanda Díaz has criticized again today, considering that in this case the CEOE “is moving away from the interests it should represent” and that, by prioritizing partisanship, it has gone against the interests of these companies. She was referring to Labor’s previous offer to limit the increase in the SMI to 4% if the CEOE joined the consensus. And that, by not doing so, it rose to the 5% finally decided.
With the words of the vice president, the clash with the employers was ready, and it did not take long to occur. “No one is saying that working hours cannot be reduced, in fact there are sectors with more productivity that have less working hours. Not all sectors are the same, which is why what we propose is that it be done sector by sector,” stated the president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi. He also added that as it is being proposed, this negotiation table “already has the end and the result marked”, so “we cannot talk about social dialogue”, when the Government has already made a decision that is in accordance with ” a political milestone”.
On the other hand, with regard to dismissal, Vice President Díaz has reaffirmed her willingness to reform the legislation that regulates dismissal to adapt it to the European Social Charter. A contract termination mechanism will be established that “repairs damage and is a deterrent.” Díaz considers that the current legislation, which establishes certain days for compensation, is not adequate, because the value that must be compensated cannot be known in advance. “The key is adequate reparation and that the dismissal is dissuasive,” she said.
The modification of the dismissal was one of the elements that fell out of the negotiation of the Labor Reform. At that time it was not part of the Podemos Government agreement with the PSOE and therefore it was not raised. On the other hand, now it has been incorporated into the pact between the two members of the current coalition.
Subsequent to this negotiation, UGT denounced the dismissal conditions of the Spanish legal framework before the European Committee of Human Rights (CES) in 2022, considering that it does not sufficiently protect workers. If the CES makes a favorable ruling on the union demand, it will be an additional argument that the Government will use to modify the regulations in force. However, Díaz stated this morning that he will not wait for this pronouncement, but that since he is in the Government pact, he is going to move forward without waiting any longer.
