Díaz accelerates the approval of the reduction of the working day in the Government and the unions smooth the debate in Congress

The reduction of the working day by 2025 is being prepared in two areas and with increasing speed. The country’s main unions and the Ministry of Labor focus all their efforts in the final stretch of the year on guaranteeing the approval of these measures, since the employers have refused to be part of the agreement.

The two areas in which this initiative is configured are the Government and the Congress of Deputies. In the coalition Executive, the leading voice is led by the department led by the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz.

At this time, Labor has two processes open. On the one hand, a technical negotiation table where the Secretary of State for Employment, Joaquin Perez Reyseeks to close a definitive agreement with Workers’ Commissions and with the General Union of Workers.

This table was launched when the employers decided to withdraw from the negotiation; At that time, Labor and the union organizations already had a broad consensus around the main elements that should constitute the reform: the reduction of the working day to 37.5 hours in 2025; the implementation of a digital time record in interoperable companies by the Labor Inspection; and the regulation of the so-called right to digital disconnection.

Now, the ministry wants to accelerate the technical negotiation with the unions to close the last issues, and this week there could be an agreement: “During this week we will move forward decisively in the text for an agreement between the Government and unions in the face of the employers’ non-appearance,” Pérez Rey himself advanced.

Labor accelerates negotiation with unions

At the same time, the Government keeps open the so-called public consultation process for the text, which will close next Saturday, December 7, and which has already received around 200 contributions, according to what is reported from the Ministry of Labor.

When these two processes (the technical negotiation with the unions and the public consultation) conclude, those of Díaz will take the text to approve it “with maximum speed“in the Council of Ministers.

While Labor completes the procedures within the Executive, the main union organizations focus on preparing the arrival of the initiative to the Congress of Deputies. CCOO and UGT have been immersed for weeks in a round of contacts with the different groups to gauge the support that the reduction of working hours will have in Parliament.

The votes of the PP could be key to guarantee the approval of the reduction of the working day

Today, both the unions and the department led by Díaz focus their efforts on attracting PP votes. Your president, Alberto Núñez Feijóoput a proposal on the table months ago to reorganize the work day and move towards a four-day work week (without reducing work time, that is, working more hours for fewer days).

Furthermore, the Government and union organizations defend that the measure has a majority support of a society that, they argue, would not understand the vote against it in Parliament. However, the PP route is very far from being safe, and those from Feijóo have not revealed what their voting direction would be.

In the current context it seems difficult that it could be a Yeahmainly for two reasons: the first is that the conservatives systematically oppose any measure that comes from the coalition government; The second is that the reduction of the working day has the rejection of the employer (which would not be a guarantee for the Yeah of the PP, but whose No may further complicate the support of Feijóo’s men).

Díaz traveled to Catalonia and Euskadi and met with the majority social agents in these territories

The other way is to convince the Government’s partners located on the parliamentary right, Junts and the PNV. Díaz traveled a few months ago to Euskadi and Catalonia, where he held meetings with the majority social agents (employers and unions) in these territories, who have important influences and relationships with these political formations.

The Basque nationalists seem to be open to voting in favor, although they have already pointed out issues such as that the direct aid to small businesses that Labor offered to the employers to bring it to the agreement should be maintained in the initiative that the Government sends to the Congress of Deputies.

The specific position of Junts is still unknown, but both union and parliamentary sources suggest that, as of today, Puigdemont’s party would opt for the No. The unions will continue their round of contacts to prepare for the landing of the reduction in working hours in Congress while the Ministry of Labor accelerates the approval of the initiative within the Government.