Fedea And BBVA warned the government that reduced working hours that Yolanda Diaz’s plans will particularly harm foreign workers. Specifically, analysts insist that this measure will reduce your future incomesince limiting the working day to 37.5 hours, compared to 40 hours currently, reduces their ability to accumulate working hours in the same company.
Marcel Jansen, an associate researcher at Fedea, stressed that the reduction in working hours that the government is seeking to implement could limit growth future income of the immigrant population.
According to Jansen, companies will see their profits increase as they face a reduction in working hours. labor costssince productivity would not increase proportionally. This would lead to lower wage growth than would have been achieved without the reduction in working hours.
During the presentation of the quarterly observatory of the labor market, carried out by Fedea and BBVA, Jansen questioned whether this measure was really what immigrants want, especially those who have just arrived in the country, given that their main concern is to increase their income.
“In the immigrant group, especially newcomers, what is your priority? Your priority is income. And what does the government do? Well, your ability to accumulate hours of work in the same job is diminished. “It’s not at all clear to me that that’s really what this group wants,” Jansen said, though he noted that the argument can be extended to “many people” who work in low-income sectors.
Reduction of working hours and foreigners
In this regard, the leading economist of BBVA SearchJuan Ramón García, indicated that foreign workers will be one of the groups most affected by this reduction in working hours, a measure that BBVA describes as “negative.”
However, the associate researcher of Fedea, Florentino Felgueroso, believes that the reduction of working hours will have a limited impact on immigrants, since the measure will regulate working hours in a company, but not short-term working hours and the accumulation of jobs, where there is a greater presence of foreign population.
“How will this measure affect short-term shifts, which are very present in many jobs, such as cleaning staff, domestic workers?” asked Felgueroso, who recalled that these professions are those where there is a greater presence of immigrants.
Thus, for the expert, the government will not be able to regulate that a worker, if he wishes, works 100 hours a week. “A worker can work as he wants,” he concludes.
