Unions and employers will negotiate in parallel with Díaz the reduction of working hours

The Ministry of Labor has brought together social dialogue today to begin to address the reduction of the working day to 37.5 hours per week. This is one of the star measurements that he intends to implement during the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, and that he negotiated with the Government to form the coalition. At the end of the meeting, the Secretary of State for Labor, Joaquín Pérez Rey, explained that the unions and employers They will open a dialogue parallel to the negotiation tablein addition to the negotiations that both parties maintain individually with the Government.

“The bipartite dialogue is going to take place in parallel with the Government’s intervention to achieve the objective that is in the coalition program between the two political forces that support the progressive Executive,” said Pérez Rey.

The social agents have requested this dialogue with the intention of study this topic sectorally and by company sizebecause the organizations are aware that a day is not the same for some sectors as for others, since there has been progress in this aspect due to the sectoral negotiation of the different agreements, in which reductions in working time have been addressed. job.

“The contributions of social dialogue will be definitive since Labor is not willing for the standards it works to become objects of jewelry,” the Secretary of State emphasized. in relation to the rejection of the unemployment benefit reform in the Congress of Deputies.

Pérez Rey highlighted that the meeting took place in a “constructive” atmosphere, during which the Government clearly expressed what its “final objectives” are in this negotiation: optimize the efficiency of time registration and reduce the weekly working day to 37.5 hours by 2025, in accordance with the provisions of the joint program of PSOE and Sumar. Díaz’s intentions are that, before the end of the year, all Spanish workers have reduced their working hours to 38.5 hours.

“Our objectives are for the time record to be an effective instrument that allows the Labor Inspection to act in a forceful and practical manner in those sectors where non-compliance occurs and to achieve this reduction of the working day to 37.5 hours in 2025. The path that We have to go together to achieve these objectives, which is precisely the work that the social dialogue table is going to do and that bipartite dialogue is also going to do,” he assured.

40 years without debate

The Government highlights that they have inaugurated “a debate that has been on hold for 40 years, without anyone ever having the intention of reopening it.” From Trabajo they maintain that it is a necessary measure and that it must be addressed “immediately” so that Spaniards can live better, companies are more productive and more jobs can be created. The Secretary of State has estimated that 12 million workers will benefit from the reduction in working hours.

Pérez Rey has highlighted that “it will benefit a very important group of Spanish society. A new society that values ​​more conciliation, productivity and free time has to advance in this debate hand in hand with social dialogue in an absolutely constructive climate.” .

The Ministry highlights that this “is a commitment of the Government to the Spanish citizens” and that there is a lot to talk about in terms of working time. For this reason, the table will also address that the time registration is effective, which allows the Labor Inspection “to act forcefully in the sectors in which there are non-compliances.” Pérez Rey added that this is because the labor sanctions are not “sufficiently dissuasive.”