There will be no agreement for reduce working hours. Ten months after the start of meetings between the Government and social agents, the positions of the parties have practically not changed. On Tuesday evening, the Department of Labor released its latest offer, which includes direct help to micro-SMEsbut this did not succeed in convincing CEOE. Garamendi’s men will not sign anything.
Management sources assure EL ESPAÑOL-Invertia that these new direct aids that Yolanda Díaz’s department has put on the table “They are very good as starters, but they really don’t even reach 800 euros”. And although the ministry estimates them at 6,000 euros per company, their budget is 350 million to be distributed among nearly half a million companies.
In addition, business leaders do not fully understand the function of this incentive with which the government wants to convince employers. Joaquin Pérez ReySecretary of State for Labor, explained that this money could be used to improve productivity through digitalization of micro-SMEs with fewer than five employees. “For this, we already have the Digital Kit, and they even give us a laptop,” they criticize from the business side.
There is anger at the top of the employers’ association, as well as at distrust of government and unions. “What do they want? That we sign a pact now and they don’t respect it in a year? Because We are told that what we signed in 2023 is no longer valid” argue the businessmen.
A year ago, they signed with the unions the V Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC), which sets the general lines of the agreements and does not refer to the working day. And for CEOE, The legal reduction envisaged by the government – encouraged by the power plants themselves – blows up this agreement..
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Garamendi himself was direct in his interview with this newspaper, and he repeated it this Wednesday: “In no case are we going to share the pure interventionism of the government.” The boss’s boss believes that what the Ministry of Labor intends to do “is bad for the economy” and demands respect for collective bargaining.
Likewise, employers do not understand that help will only arrive if employers adhere to the agreement to reduce working hours. They emphasize that it is “striking” that a “a lifeline” for small businesses because it is understood that they will have the most problems if the working day is reduced, but that this will only happen if there is a tripartite agreement.
Documents
That the government’s latest offer must now be analyzed by the various internal bodies of unions and employers. The document that the work sent to the social agents and to which EL ESPAÑOL-Invertia had access conditions the direct aid to companies by maintaining the level and quality of employment existing in the company during three years.
The proposal from Yolanda Díaz’s department consists of the introduction of two new aid programs, endowed with a common amount of 375 million euros, which function as an extension of the Digital Kit and the Advisory Kit.
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In the first case, Trabajo offers a new help to finance “the adoption of all types of digitalization solutions” for the company, endowed with 187.5 million euros.
Concerning the second program, even if Kit Consulting is not aimed at microenterprises, it is planned to launch a new aid program, also endowed with 187.5 million, to that these micro-enterprises can use digitalization consulting services.
It is worth noting, however, that Labor did not present the proposal immediately after the meeting. The truth is that The lack of documents was one of the complaints that marked the entire dialogue tablesince it started several months ago.
Social workers have repeatedly criticized the ministry for make verbal proposals that have not subsequently been clarified in writingwhile the government has disgraced employers by failing to offer a detailed alternative.
Before this latest offer, the Government had already planned a reform of the right to digital disconnection and a strengthening of time recording. In fact, improving the recording of working time is one of the main demands of the unions.
So much so that CGU developed a application clean to facilitate recording of workers’ time. And the Ugetistas, who presented a request for regulation of overtime before the European Committee of Social Rights, criticize that “the ministry continues not to offer a digital register, accessible and not manipulated, failing not only to respect Spanish legislation, but what they demand of us from Europe”.
But Labor has marked the meeting of the next Monday November 11 as red line. Once this meeting is over, we will know if the Executive finally moves forward with the reduction of the working day. However, at this stage no one expects surprises.
The employers’ organization has been opposing it for months and the only outstanding question will be whether the government will present to Congress the rule of bonuses and direct aid with which it has tried to convince employers or whether it will let them side, because he doesn’t. have the approval of businessmen.
