The bill to reduce the working day to 37.5 hours from January 1, 2025 without salary reduction is already in the public consultation phase at the initiative of the Ministry of Labor led by Yolanda Díaz. Interested agents can contribute to the articulated future for a period of 15 days, as usual, from November 23 to December 7.
The process of legally reducing working hours comes after the government’s break with employers, who rejected this reform, and while the agreement with the union party has not yet been concluded. This action therefore constitutes the first step towards inform and collect contributions subjects and organizations involved before raising the standard on the political scene.
This is an unprecedented reform in more than four decades, since The last regulation on the legal limitation of the maximum weekly working day dates back to 1983.. The motivation behind this reform, which is part of an electoral promise made by Díaz with Sumar, is the improvement of wages, productivity or conciliation, responds the Ministry of Labor in the text.
The justification for the reform is time control and unpaid time fraud. Díaz wants to control illegal and, where applicable, unpaid overtime through a electronic file to which the Labor and Social Security Inspectorate would have access. This time, the registration desired by the minister would also involve a new regime of sanctions to deter businesses, as defended by the unions.
Legally, it also wants to protect the right to disconnect workers once the schedule or shift is over. This is why he wants to define the worker’s “inalienable right” to this disconnection to ensure that failure to provide attention outside of working hours will not result in retaliation or employment consequences.
The text, which must still be finalized with the unions, will leave aside the aid and bonuses for microSMEs that the government had initially proposed to the CEOE after the rejection of the employers’ offer. Unions want to strengthen digital control, avoid unpaid hours and toughen sanctions for non-compliance with time regulations.
