The second vice president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, has issued an ultimatum to the employers’ association to agree to reduce the working day to 37 and a half hours a week. Díaz referred this morning to the new proposal from the Ministry of Labor to employers, direct aid for the transformation and support of SMEs with less than five workers, which El País announced this weekend.
“The proposal we have made is very clear, to help small Spanish companies with direct aid so that they take advantage of the opportunity of the change of reduced working hours to modernize, to improve their productivity,” Díaz explained about the measure.
“We have come this far, we have shown that an agreement is possible. That we have proposed all kinds of measures. Now the employers have to give a final response to this last measure. The opportunity for change is there,” stated the head of Labor.
Last Thursday, Yolanda Díaz already put pressure on employers with another message: aid and resources to support companies are on the table if there is an agreement to reduce working hours, but if the employers withdraw from the negotiation, the benefits will also decline. helps.
These direct aid to SMEs with fewer than five employees thus join the measures already announced for companies with fewer than 10 employees, such as bonuses for new hires or for the conversion of part-time contracts to full-time ones.
“Final stretch” of the negotiation
“We are in the final stretch” of the negotiation, Yolanda Díaz has warned. “We are going to reduce the working day and we have to know if the Spanish employers give a response to the new proposal from the Ministry of Labor,” he added.
The government program between PSOE and Sumar agreed to a reduction in the maximum working day from 40 hours a week to 38 and a half hours in 2024 and to 37 and a half hours in 2025. The first step has been surpassed, without agreement on the negotiation of social dialogue, but the coalition Government is determined to fulfill its 2025 commitment, Labor insists. The date on the social dialogue table to achieve this objective is December 31, 2025.
Thus, the goal of the 37 and a half hour work day is unalterable, but the employers can negotiate how. If it is done with aid for those companies with the most problems in carrying it out, or without it if the measure is not agreed upon with the Executive.
“The employers have no excuse, they have to decide if they want to negotiate and help the Spanish business fabric, the smallest ones, we are talking about companies with less than five workers, or if they dedicate themselves to doing something else that has nothing to do with the social dialogue nor with the well-being of Spanish companies,” Yolanda Díaz has pressed.
Once again, he gave as an example the last negotiation on the minimum wage, in which Labor offered to raise it by 4% if there was a tripartite agreement and, in the face of the employers’ refusal, increased it by 5% after an agreement with the unions. “The employers must decide whether to side with small businesses or do something else. He already did it on the minimum wage, he preferred not to negotiate and harm Spanish companies,” Díaz added.
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