The government is offering employers more than 350 million euros in aid to SMEs in various sectors, such as hospitality and commerce, as a final step in attempting a social agreement on reducing working hours. The Ministry of Labor explained that the proposal includes aid “up to 6,000 euros” for companies, micro-SMEs with fewer than five employees, with the aim of improving their productivity.
This Tuesday, the Secretary of State for Labor, Joaquín Pérez Rey, presented the government’s “latest proposal” to the employers’ association CEOE, during a press conference at the end of the negotiation table with the unions and the majority employers’ associations. Productivity aid focuses on businesses with fewer than five employees in five productive sectors: hospitality, commerce, hairdressing, cleaning and agriculture.
In total, the government estimates that some “470,000” small businesses in these five activities could benefit from this measure, which, according to Yolanda Díaz’s “number two”, were selected for their productivity rate and their higher productivity level. pupil. gap (margin) between the working hours of its workers and the government’s commitment of 37 and a half hours per week.
This aid is also in addition to the bonuses that the Ministry of Labor has offered to companies with fewer than 10 employees for new hires and the conversion of part-time employees to full-time due to the reduction in working hours. These, the amount of which has not yet been specified (“between 20% and 100%”), would be applied generally, without distinction between sectors.
Ask the bosses “yes or no”
“There is no doubt about the government’s commitment to trying to reach an agreement,” insisted Joaquín Pérez Rey on several occasions. The Secretary of State for Labor recalled that this was the 13th negotiation meeting on the reduction of working hours, “the most important norm of the legislator”, which took place in “nearly ten months » of social dialogue.
Faced with this margin, the Secretary of State insisted on the message that the Vice President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, has also repeated in recent days: “This picture is entering its home stretch.”
Pérez Rey called on business leaders to respond “yes or no” at the next social dialogue meeting, scheduled for next Monday, November 11.
