CCOO and UGT have called on the government to “dare” to promote a bill to reduce the working day to 37.5 hours in case the agreement with the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE) is “unviable” and to continue with your “trick” of blocking the dialogue table. They consider that the negotiations are “blocked” due to the employer blockade and are pressuring the Ministry of Labor to address the reform without the support of businessmen.
This was stated by the general secretaries of the CCOO and the UGT, respectively Unai Sordo and Pepe Álvarez, who participated this Friday in an information assembly in Zaragoza on the reduction of working time to 37.5 hours per week and the announcement of the mobilizations that are being prepared for next September 26.
“The CEOE is blocking and unjustifiably delaying the negotiations on the reduction of working hours and we want to denounce this attitude,” said Sordo, affirming that “it is time to reduce the working day in Spain by law.” He criticized at this point the “absurd vision” of the employers’ union that bets on the reduction of working hours through collective agreements.
Unai Sordo warned that referring to collective agreements as a mechanism for reducing working hours is a “trick” by the CEOE to try to block the negotiating table, but “what we are talking about is changing the law”. When employers focus on collective agreements as the only means, “either they are very clumsy or they want to block the tables, and since they are not stupid, it is obvious that they want the blockage”.
For this reason, he made a call on the central executive to “dare” to promote a bill if the agreement is “unviable”. However, the general secretary of CCOO has chosen, above all, to continue exploring the path of an agreement. The general secretary of the UGT, Pepe Álvarez, considers that the negotiation is “frankly stagnant, even exhausted”, because “there is absolutely no type of movement”. They affirm that the businessmen are maneuvering with Junts to prevent the reform from obtaining the necessary parliamentary support.
“In the coming weeks and months, we will also address all the political groups present in the Congress of Deputies to ask their opinion,” said Sordo, because “we must politicize the issue of working hours and get everything wet in the world” in the face of a social majority in favor of a reduction in working hours.
