The president of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, insists in his private statements that the conciliation proposals prepared by the people were “misunderstood”notably his alleged defense of the four-day work week.
Now in these conversations, Feijóo specifies that he was able to verify that this latest initiative would be very well received in the automotive sector.. Moreover, the leader of the PP had this activity in mind, and other related activities, when he considered the four-day work week – always without loss of real working hours and with the consensus of employers and unions – as one of the feasible solutions. options in its conciliation plan, even if the latter never explicitly included them. Instead, the text of the proposal has always referred to a “flex day.”
The situation of the Spanish automobile industry continues to present obvious particularities. Demand for passenger cars and other vehicles still remains below pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels in Spain. However, factories are maintaining work schedules and production volumes virtually identical to those in 2019.
In these circumstances, Adapting to current market conditions would make it ideal to concentrate the workload between Monday and Thursday.with slightly longer daily hours than current ones, in order to ensure that working hours, and therefore current productivity rates, are not reduced.
Energy saving
In automobile factories, it is also easier to redistribute the workload on automobile assembly lines than in other industrial areas. In other words, factories in the automotive sector could maintain a significantly lower level of production between Friday and Sundaywhich would mean considerable energy savings and return to normal levels within the next four days.
Beyond the Spanish factories, The truth is that the four-day workweek is an idea that is not at all unknown to the global automotive industry. It is enough to recall that last summer, Toyota publicly announced its intention to implement a similar measure in the facilities it has in its country of origin: Japan. Toyota also has other measures already in effect to make its workers’ schedules more flexible.
Such a limited application of the four-day working day could put an end to the suspicions that the measure arouses, expressed in general terms, among experts but also among business representatives. all They consider that working days of 9.5 or 10 hours per day between Monday and Thursday will have inevitable effects on worker productivity.
