This Tuesday, social workers are meeting again to discuss reducing the working day to 37 and a half hours without a pay cut. They are doing so after tour Yolanda Díaz and her team in Barcelona to meet with the Catalan employers’ associations Foment and Pimec and learn about their intentions to join a social agreement.
However, Sources within the CEOE management insist that they remain firm and that, under the current conditions, they will not accept the reduction in working hours.despite the social security contribution bonuses that the Ministry of Labor has already proposed and which will be financed by the State Public Employment Service (SEPE) itself.
This measure does not, for the moment, repair the effect that the reduction in working hours would have on the activity of certain companies.We need a significant reduction in labor costswhich compensates for the loss of hours and possible increases in staff numbers,” they indicate from the board of directors of the national employers’ association.
There are other demands on the table. Within the employers’ union, to consider giving in to a social pact, measures must be considered to reduce high absenteeism in the service sector (affects 10% of the global workforce, they say) and that companies have some ability to negotiate when workers ask reductions in working hours.
These are some of the arguments that the CEOE and Cepyme negotiators will put forward in their files (who will insist on the fact that everything relating to the working day must be addressed in the collective bargaining which corresponds to each sector or company) at the meeting held this Tuesday at the Ministry of Labor, at 4:30 p.m.
Draft
Those of Díaz, led by Joaquín Pérez Rey, Secretary of State, had committed that last week, both the employers and the unions (CCOO and UGT) would present a project with the government’s proposal.
However, as reported by EL ESPAÑOL-Invertia, The ministry decided to delay its preparation in order to listen to Catalan employers’ associations and include their demands in the final proposal.Satisfying them could facilitate the path towards a reduction in working hours, which will have to be approved in the form of a bill by the Congress of Deputies.
In addition, Díaz has long been involved in promoting the Catalan employers’ association Pimec, which is part of Conpymes, one of CEOE’s main competitors, to dilute the power of the organization chaired by Antonio Garamendi in social dialogue.
It is worth remembering that before July, Yolanda Díaz had accepted an agreement to reduce the working day only with the unions, already concluded. However, the insistence of the socialist part of the government and the president himself, Pedro Sánchez, forced her to undertake new actions to try to rally the businessmen.
But this has irritated the unions, who accuse the employers of blocking the agreement and even possible negotiations. This is why they decided to demonstrate in front of its doors. That same Thursday, 26, CCOO and UGT called for concentrations in front of the CEOE headquarters in various regions of Spain.
So, this Tuesday’s meeting seems key for the future of the negotiation on the reduction of working time. Everything will depend of course on what the Executive puts on the table.
