The president of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, corrected his proposal on how to adapt the working day, due to the needs for conciliation, during his informal meetings with businessmen in recent days. The leader of the opposition specifies, as revealed by sources close to the elEconomista.eswhose intention is to promote flexible working hours –already mentioned in its draft law on social measures- always negotiated between the company and the workersinstead of prioritizing reducing working hours to four days a week. The latter option would inevitably reduce productivity, according to experts and business representatives.
Feijóo’s step back thus seeks to mark a clear distance from previous public statements, in which he assured that his intention was to move towards a schedule of between nine and ten hours a day for four days a week. The sources consulted in Genoa want to clarify that the PP has always presented this “as the result of a necessary agreement between unions and employers taking into account the analyzes and needs of the sectors, which are so different that there can be no difference “common agreement”. standard for everyone”, they emphasize.
This is reflected in the bill registered by the Popular Party in Congress on October 1, a few days after CEOE President Antonio Garamendi made public his rejection of the first version of the initiative. In the text, the training specifies that “companies must encourage the implementation of a flexible schedule, which allows employees to organize the start and end of their working day”; The initiative explains that this “implementation of flexible working hours” must be agreed between the company and the workers.without this implying a reduction in working time or salary“. The popular leader now clings to the literality of his text to fill the gaps that his initial proposal opened within his own party. The hardest wing of the PP criticized Feijóo for the desired “social turn” by the party with its proposal on conciliation, and insisted on the fact that the approach of the four-day day “eclipsed” other historic banners of training such as free education from 0 to 3 years.
Approve your strategy
However, initially, the popular president ratified before his people his strategy of “expanding” the electorate through social measures. While waiting for the PP to define its final position, party sources reveal that businessmen have asked Feijóo to take into account aspects such as hours worked or absenteeismin this corner of the bill. It should be remembered that absenteeism reached 7% in the second quarter, according to Adecco, which is particularly worrying within the CEOE.
Its president, Antonio Garamendi, did not hesitate to applaud initiatives like the one proposed by the Minister of Social Security, Elma Saiz, who put on the table a few days ago the possibility of studying a formula to gradually integrate disabled employees.
In addition, Génova insists that “many companies” are already applying reductions in working hours and highlights the pilot experience promoted in Valencia in 2023 in which they reduced the weekly schedule to four days in a series of businesses. The report’s findings found that the health and well-being of workers had improved, but activity in sectors such as commerce or health and social services had deteriorated.
Meet with employers and unions next week
The PP leader plans to hold formal meetings with social agents next week. Specifically, will meet the CEOE and the CCOO next Monday, and the CEPYME and the UGT on Tuesday. The path that Núñez Feijóo hopes to open is unlikely to succeed. The employers’ frontal rejection of the reduction of the working day to four days contrasts with the good tone with which the unions welcomed the proposal. The vice-president of the CEOE, Lorenzo Amor, yesterday called for “the autonomy of collective bargaining”. In the same spirit, the president of the CEIM insisted on Monday on the need for the standard to be agreed by “both parties” (company and workers). “We must let the parties decide freely what interests them most,” said Miguel Garrido. For their part, the unions demand the immediate development of the reduction in working hours, and do not want a new round of negotiations to delay the implementation of the measure.
It should be remembered that the UGT, CCOO and businessmen continue to try to move forward – without success – at the social dialogue table on reducing the working day to 37.5 hours per week. The second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, will continue to try to reach an agreement in the next meetings and predicted – last Tuesday – that the Council of Ministers will approve the measure through a bill that will be processed in Congress through the procedure of ’emergency. . The intention of the Minister of Labor is that the rule comes into force on January 1, so she has a little more than two and a half months to settle the negotiations and obtain its parliamentary validation.
However, negotiations have continued for months without any decisive progress. In fact, last September, the majority unions called for a wave of demonstrations in front of the headquarters of employers’ organizations throughout Spain to demand the application of the measure. The UGT and CCOO ask the Labor Party to approve the rule without employers, which Yolanda Díaz resists.
