The second vice president of the Government and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, took advantage of the confederal congress of the UGT union to return to work with the labor fronts still open and burdened by the failure of negotiations to reduce the working day. The intervention of the leader of Sumar focused on the increase in the cost of dismissal, the imminent increase in the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI), as well as on the rest of the protagonists of the board of directors also present. They demand that the Popular Party (PP) take a position in favor of reducing the working day. “Are you going to do the same thing as with the labor reform?” he asked popular leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
The reform of severance pay is one of the major points of Díaz’s agenda and, precisely, it arises from a demand of the UGT in Europe. Labor wants to strengthen causalitylimiting the causes which determine the abusive termination, and the implementation of the call compensatory dismissal enshrined in the European Social Charterwith the aim of establishing a model that discourages companies from using dismissals as a tool for adjusting the company’s balance sheet. It would also reform severance pay.
However, Díaz sees a future for Parliament and, with this optimism, he has presented his next plans to trade unionists, businessmen and the opposition. Once she has the approval of the unions for a reduction in working hours, which does not seem complicated at all since the employers’ organization will be excluded from the agreement, the head of Labor will have to obtain the support of Congress deputies.
For this reason, he directly involved Feijóo in his speech, since The Galician has the “key” to continue the reduction of working hours through legislation: Support or abstention from the PP would free Sumar from having to deal with all government partners.
In this reform there are aspects that have been pillars for work and also for unions, such as the electronic recording of hours worked to avoid overtime fraud or the right to disconnect which aims to be legally reinforced .
There has been no agreement with the CEOE for eleven months, and regarding this refusal, he reminds businessmen that “disagreement cannot be confused with the right of veto”. For his part, Antonio Garamendi, president of CEOE, considers that every agreement concluded without businessmen is a “disagreement” between the government and the unions.
This Tuesday, the vice-president begins consulting the experts and agents involved to make a new increase in the SMI effective. At the same time, he mentioned other aspects such as “shared prosperity” between shareholders and employees.
Pepe Álvarez, general secretary of the UGT, He is the only candidate to return to occupy this position during the 44th edition of the Confederal Congress of the UGT and will be re-elected for four more years. His mandate, under the heat of Díaz, will probably be marked again by Working Time. From the UGT they are more ambitious in this regard and They even require a 32-hour workdaycompared to the current 40 hours.
The Inspectorate operates in Valencia
Díaz deplored the death of a worker following the collapse of the roof of a school in Massanassa (València), one of the municipalities affected by DANA, and indicated that the Labor Inspectorate was investigating this affair.
He said that “no emergency situation can affect safety and life” and that companies must, in all circumstances, assess workplaces in advance and adopt all necessary preventive measures.
