The second vice-president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, surprised this week by rescheduling her department’s agenda. What was supposed to be a new meeting of the social dialogue table to address the reduction of the working day to 38.5 hours in 2024 and 37.5 hours in 2025 is a series of contacts by Díaz with various employers, unions and groups in Catalonia to assess the opinion of these associations. The leader of the Labor Party, on his own initiative, is organizing a series of “protocol” talks in Barcelona, economic sources explain. In this “cotton test”, we find the same position as in Madrid: the employers, against and with demands similar to those raised by the CEOE; and the unions, advancing the mobilizations.
Díaz first met with the region’s association of SMEs, Pimec, chaired by Antoni Cañete. Although the second vice-president has maneuvered behind the “status quo” of social dialogue to include this regional employers’ association (and others) in the “quota” of collective bargaining consultative bodies, the organization is more in favor of channeling the reduction of the working day through collective bargaining, that is, through agreements that must be renewed in the coming years, “respecting their autonomy and flexible adaptation of the measures, as well as monitoring generalized improvements.”
Work and Pimec also maintain distant positions on other points. The employers’ organization proposes social security bonuses or tax incentives in exchange for support for the measure, as well as an analysis of the impact on SMEs or the self-employed. They consider it “absolutely unthinkable that such a measure can or should be assumed solely by companies” and They fear that a unilateral decision would lead to a loss of competitiveness and increase labor turnover. as happened in France.
Foment del Treball, the employers’ association chaired by Josep Sánchez Llibre, will also meet today. Sources from the organization explain that Foment fully aligns with CEOE’s unfavourable position on reducing working hours under the conditions proposed by the Ministry of Labour and stress that collective bargaining must be respected as a means of reaching an agreement on changes to working hours, which the government is not considering today because it would delay the implementation of the reduction in working hours.
Diaz held a meeting yesterday afternoon with different economic sectors that will be affected by the reformbringing together several senior Pimec officials representing SMEs, self-employed people or commercial or tourism companies, with the presence of its vice-president and co-president of the labour sector Emma Gumbert or the general secretary, Josep Ginesta. Also invited were Josep Tres, president of the Public-Private Collaboration Commission and the Association of Cleaning Companies of the Region (ASCEN), Antoni Torres, president of the Association of Pharmacies (FEFAC), Manel Martínez, vice-president of the association representing fitness companies (ADECAF), Gemma Comajuncosa, representative of young farmers (JARC) or Pere Mulero, president of the Catalan Association of Leisure, Education and Culture Companies (ACELLEC).
Negotiations of the counter-program
The government’s agenda reported on Tuesday night the presence of the second vice-president in Barcelona, accompanied by his “number two” Joaquín Pérez Rey. The Secretary of State is the one who is leading the negotiations with the representatives of the CEOE, Cepyme, UGT and CCOO. Thus, Díaz’s trip to Barcelona has caused the postponement of the next meeting of the social dialogue with the negotiations to September 24, when it was scheduled for this Thursday 19, due to “calendar problems”.
Taking advantage of her visit to Barcelona, the leader of the Labour Party will also meet today with the majority unions, UGT and CCOO, in a three-way meeting. The regional centres will take advantage of Díaz’s presence to put pressure and give weight to the mobilizations against the employers arguing of a “blockade” in the negotiation.
Javier Pacheco and Camil Ros, general secretaries of the CCOO and the UGT of Catalonia, will present at a press conference after the meeting with Díaz the calendar of mobilizations that will take place throughout the territory to demand the approval of the reduction of the working day to 37.5 hours, which will begin on the 26th, while the unions were advancing after the last meeting in Madrid. The autumn mobilizations foresee an important role for the Catalan industry, where 30% of workers are expected to take to the streets.
