The Ministry of Labor has opened up to the postponement of the reduction in working hours: that the maximum working day goes from 40 to 38 and a half hours in 2025 (compared to 2024 committed to in the government pact) and that 37 and a half hours be reached from December 31, 2025. “That is, in 2026,” explained Maricruz Vicente, secretary of union action and employment of CCOO.
The new timetable is part of Labour’s approach to social workers at the last two meetings, given the delay in negotiations, which have already lasted nine months, and to try to bring employers to a tripartite agreement.
This is the only news that the unions shared at the end of the social dialogue meeting on the reduction of working hours held this Tuesday. Union sources specified that the ministry’s offer also depends on the willingness of the employers to reach an agreement, something that CCOO and UGT have not yet seen materialize. The parties agreed to meet again on October 11.
The ministry held this new meeting after proposing aid to SMEs earlier this month to try to attract entrepreneurs. This “SME Plan 37.5” became more concrete this Tuesday, although the Secretary of State, Joaquín Pérez Rey, did not want to detail any element so as not to interfere in the negotiation. “We continue to trust in a social dialogue agreement,” said Pérez Rey.
Mobilizations next Thursday
Although this Tuesday the negotiators spoke of good taste and perhaps of a more favorable climate at the dialogue table, in recent days, unions and employers have raised their voices. The Workers’ Commissions and the UGT speak of “teasing” and “blocking” the businessmen after months of conversations, while they prepare the mobilizations announced for this Thursday in front of the headquarters of the CEOE.
The unions added that the negotiation cannot be delayed “sine die”. Therefore, if employers are not willing to negotiate, they will ask the government to regulate itself the commitment to reduce the working day to 37 and a half hours.
For his part, the leader of the employers’ union, Antonio Garamendi, claimed the freedom of the business world to reject the measure. “They always tell us that we are the most powerful. Powerful is the one who has the Official State Gazette (BOE). Let them do it, but this breaks a whole evolution since 77 of the great agreements when that is what collective negotiations are for,” said the president of the CEOE.
PP sneaks into negotiations
This Tuesday, a new actor even entered the debate: the PP. After announcing yesterday his proposal for greater “freedom” for paternity leave, Alberto Núñez Feijóo announced on Tuesday that he was open to negotiating a reduction in working hours, even if his approach is very far from what is currently being negotiated.
Feijóo advocated working four days but more hours, “9 hours or 9.5 hours”, and not as a general measure for all workers, but that it would only apply to certain sectors and without affecting “productivity”, he said. This will be one of the topics that the PP leader will address soon with social agents, to whom he has requested a meeting.
Vice President Yolanda Díaz responded that she maintained her willingness to negotiate the reduction of working hours with “all political parties,” except the far-right Vox party, as she has done in other regulations. “The question is: who is going to oppose a measure that is positive for the country and benefits the population?” Díaz said.
