The Government offers employers more than 350 million euros in aid to SMEs in various sectors, such as hospitality and commerce, as the last bullet to attempt a social agreement on the reduction of working hours. The Ministry of Labor has explained that the proposal includes aid of “up to 6,000 euros” for companies, micro-SMEs with less than five workers, with the aim of improving their productivity.
This Tuesday, the Secretary of State for Labor, Joaquín Pérez Rey, outlined the Government’s “latest proposal” to the CEOE employers’ association, in a press conference at the end of the negotiation table with the unions and majority employers’ associations. Productivity aid is focused on companies with less than five employees in five productive sectors: hospitality, commerce, hairdressers, cleaning and agriculture.
In total, the Government estimates that some “470,000” small businesses in these five activities could benefit from the measure, which Yolanda Díaz’s ‘number two’ has argued have been selected for their productivity rates and higher 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 added to the bonuses that the Ministry of Labor has offered to companies with less than 10 workers for new hires and conversions of part-time employees to full-time due to the reduction in working hours. These, which have not yet been specified in their amount (“between 20% to 100%”), would be applied generally, without distinguishing sectors.
Ask the bosses for “a yes or no”
“There can be no doubt about the Government’s commitment to trying to reach an agreement,” Joaquín Pérez Rey has insisted on several occasions. The Secretary of State for Labor recalled that this was the 13th meeting of the negotiation to reduce working hours, “the most important norm of the legislature”, which has been held in “almost ten months” of social dialogue.
Given this margin, the Secretary of State has insisted on the message that the Vice President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, has also repeated in recent days: “This table is entering its final stretch.”
Pérez Rey has called on business owners to give a “yes or no” at the next social dialogue meeting, which is scheduled for next Monday, November 11. If there is no agreement, Labor’s intention is to close an agreement with the unions and bring the rule to Congress “as soon as possible.”
If there is no agreement, aid is put into play
The offer of aid to SMEs and microSMEs is conditional on reaching a tripartite agreement in social dialogue to reduce working hours, explained Pérez Rey. If the employers do not enter into an agreement, the Government’s proposal will no longer be the same, Yolanda Díaz’s ‘number two’ has recognized, with a view to reaching an agreement only with the unions.
That is to say, businessmen risk aid to companies if they leave the negotiating table, something that the Ministry and the unions have placed as a logical element of any negotiation. “There must be incentives to negotiate,” they indicate.
Carlos Bravo, Secretary of Public Policies and Social Protection of CCOO, and Fernando Luján, deputy general secretary of union policy at UGT, have insisted that the negotiation has already been delayed “more than reasonable” and have called on the employers to clarify whether they are going to agree to the measure.
Otherwise, aid to companies is not the priority of worker representatives, the unions have warned, but the improvement of time registration, digital disconnection rights and the rapid application of the 37 hours and average.
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