The employers’ association is leaning towards ‘no’ to the reduction in working hours that the Government intends to approve. After Labor presented yesterday, Tuesday, the “last” offer from the Executive to businessmen, with aid to SMEs of up to 6,000 euros, the leader of the CEOE stated that “in no case are we going to share the pure interventionism of the Government”, al which he accuses of encouraging small businesses to “jump off a cliff.”
Thus, everything indicates that employers will therefore withdraw from this regulation, although there is still no definitive ‘no’ from the employers’ association, since the organization is still waiting for the details of this latest offer. “We are still without papers,” CEOE sources criticize when asked by this medium.
The president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, criticized this Wednesday what he called a “triultimatum” from the Ministry of Labor to the employers to support the reduction of the working day from the current 40 hours a week to 37.5 hours in 2025.
“Let them do what they have to do, but I have the right, representing Spanish companies, especially in this case the small ones and the self-employed, to say what we think and this is bad for the economy and for small businesses.” ”, stated Garamendi, as reported by the Europa Press agency.
“In no case are we going to share the pure interventionism of the Government,” added Garamendi when expressly asked about the requirement of Yolanda Díaz’s ‘number two’ that on November 11, business owners say “yes or no” to this “ last” offer from the Government.
Without a tripartite agreement in social dialogue, the Ministry of Labor has warned that the Executive will seek an agreement with the unions to bring the legislation “as soon as possible” to the Council of Ministers and Parliament, where the Government must obtain the necessary support to take it forward. Key partners such as the PNV have said that they will support reducing the working day to 37 and a half hours, but there is no certainty what will happen with other groups, such as Junts.
Asks that “the agreements be respected”
However, the business leader continues to throw a question into the air, which suggests a possible way of rapprochement between the parties. “Instead of continuing to go around and get confused, are the agreements going to be respected or are the agreements not going to be respected? That is the word,” said Antonio Garamendi.
This “respect” for the agreements that Garamendi refers to translates into a delay in the reduction in working hours that Labor by Law intends to approve and apply in 2025. It would mean that the agreements already signed would remain in force with the agreed schedules. . Once they expire, the new regulations would be in force.
“I cannot sign on behalf of 4,500 agreements that will be broken tomorrow and the business side will accept what the Ministry says in this case. Very sorry. When the Ministry is wrong, when we think it is wrong, when we think it does great damage to the Spanish economy, we have to say that we do not share it,” Garamendi stressed.
However, it does not seem that this is a real possibility of agreement. The agreements have different periods of validity, in many cases two or three years, which would imply a significant delay in the reduction of working hours, “the most important rule of the legislature,” in the words of the Secretary of State for Labor, Joaquín, yesterday. Perez Rey.
Furthermore, in Labor they are maintaining a firm position on the application of the reduction of the working day in 2025, since it is a commitment reached in the Government agreement between PSOE and Sumar, in which Yolanda Díaz feels reinforced by the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez.
Accuses of encouraging SMEs “to jump off a cliff”
Labor has demanded that employers abandon political positions and focus on “the interests” of small businesses. Yolanda Díaz has warned that the aid offered by the Government is conditional on a regulatory agreement. Therefore, these will decline if businessmen withdraw from the negotiation.
The Executive has proposed direct aid of up to 6,000 euros to microSMEs in five sectors (hotels, commerce, hairdressers, cleaning and agriculture), and also bonuses for new hires in companies with up to 10 employees as a result of the application of the 37-hour workday and average.
“It is surprising that they do not want to respect the validity of the agreements, interventionism in its purest form that tells you that you have to accept what they say because if not, you are not taking care of the small (businesses). “But what are you telling me?” criticized the president of the CEOE.
Garamendi has maintained that, with the reduction of the working day, the Government “is encouraging small businesses to jump off a cliff.” “They tell you: I’m going to give you some subsidies, which I don’t know what they are, they haven’t told us the time frame yet, we still don’t know absolutely anything about that, but they tell you, I’m going to give you a parachute. And no, he gives you an umbrella so that he can kill you directly, which is what is going to happen,” stated the business leader.
The leader of CEOE has pointed out that the Labor proposal for direct aid has been estimated at a cost of 350 to 375 million euros for half a million companies and “it doesn’t work out”, since he has stated that “it would mean 700 or 800 euros” per company.
#Businessmen #inclined #reject #agreement #reduce #working #hours
