The general secretary of the UGT, Pepe Álvarez, complained to the Spanish government that if it does not reach an agreement with the CEOE regarding working hours, launch legislative reform “raw” for its reduction to 37.5 hours “without any form of compensation”.
Álvarez believes that there is no time for new reflections with employers: “If they want compensation, if they want an agreement, let them sit down and negotiate. And if not, the businessmen of this country must know that their business organization will disappear. midway. We could do the same thing, but we are at the table to make proposals and trying to understand in which sectors there are more problems and how we can alleviate them“, he defended himself.
The leader of the UGT thinks about the long processing time that the reform requires: “The CEOE cannot paralyze this reform, it is reasonable that the Government seeks an agreement with the organizations that want to sign it and that the process begins. treatment because legal change takes a long time”, he warned of a process which, he recalls, could last eight months.
“Soon two years of legislature will be over, and even if it lasts four years, we could see that this reform is not approved, but I want ask the CEOE not to play politics, which could be Russian roulettebecause he thinks he is going to win, but he is going to lose no matter what, because finally the reduction of working hours in Spain is going to happen. Whether the CEOE likes it or not,” he said.
In this sense, he appealed to popular will as a driving force to convince the different parties and parliamentary groups: “I don’t think they will want to go to the 2027 elections with this open question, because there are still some citizens who, when voting, weigh what each party has done in terms of reducing working hours, a priority issue for us.
The UGT defends it This reduction in working hours will benefit the most precarious sectorsin many cases dominated by women, is the home care sector, whose representatives at the Zaragoza City Hall, precisely, Álvarez and Arceiz meet this afternoon at 4:30 p.m. to know the problems they face with the new contracts launched by the municipality. the council.
“It is a sector that needs an absolutely immediate update because the Administration has responded to a citizen demand for home care, care for the elderly in general, also in residence, with absolutely unpresentable precariousness “, criticized Álvarez.
“They think that care for the elderly will come at the expense of workers in the sector. And that’s what it seems, because ultimately it comes from the general state budgets, either through contracts with companies to provide the service or if it is the direct route of the Administration,” he said.
Regarding this dual route with different advantages for workers, the leader of the UGT warned that he cannot continue: “When it is the direct route of the Administration, the conditions are better, but When there are subcontractors, the conditions are absolutely unacceptable.but the administrations must know that it is over, that we are going to move on to a process of demands, the award of public service contracts cannot be done at the expense of workers, the reduction of the public deficit cannot be done at the expense workers. at the expense of workers. The cost of regulating labor relations, as has been the case in this sector for years.
A “precariousness” in relation to the specific question of the working day in which she included employees in commerce and the hotel industry: “In the hotel sector, it is a scandal, a shame and the “State must put in place labor control mechanisms. This level of shameful exploitation that exists in this sector cannot be authorized,” he criticized.
In this regard, Álvarez recalled, without expressly citing it, the statement made by the president of the Spanish Confederation of Hotel Companies, José Luis Yzuel of Aragon, in which he considered that working more than ten hours is not bad because in a high temporality, it is to take advantage of it.
“Let them work”, launched the leader of the UGT, who defended that “the workers employed in the hotel sector will respect the schedules, they will work on the days they have to work and these are not unbearable days we are living through.
Open meeting to address burning issues
Álvarez and Arceiz participated this Monday in a meeting with UGT delegates held at the Arsenio Jimeno Training Center in Zaragoza. A meeting which made it possible to review the most burning issues of current labor affairs at the national and regional level.
“We are going to discuss all open and not yet closed dialogue tables so that the delegates of Aragon have first-hand information, and what better than if it comes from our Secretary General, such as home help and l “regional agreement for the residential sector, youth and leisure centers, but also for the economy, for the ERE which are manifesting in Aragon, for the transport strike”, declared the general secretary of the UGT Aragón during of an assembly which he assured would be “open”. ” so that “delegates can ask what they think”.
