Labor gives until December 7 to make contributions to the law on reduction of working hours

Likewise, it is indicated that the rule that will emerge from this bill aims to establish a reduction in the maximum legal weekly working day (on an annual average). from 40 to 37.5 hours from January 1, 2025establishing specific provisions for both part-time work and reduced hours.

According to the Ministry of Labor, the reduction of the maximum legal weekly working day is not “a capricious or arbitrary commitment”, but there is “powerful arguments” in favor of its compliance.

Along these lines, the text recalls that since the last regulation of the legal limitation of the maximum weekly working day, which dates back to the year 1983collective bargaining has been responsible for cutting working time in each agreement, but with an action that «has left much to be desired in some sectors”, such as hospitality, commerce, agriculture or services, which maintain weekly hours very close to the legal maximum.

These days, according to Labor, contrast with other sectors such as education, financial and insurance activities, or energy – and with its particularities the Public Administration -, which have sought in their areas hours even below the new 37-hour day and mean that is intended to be established.

Defends the legal intervention of the day

Therefore, from the Ministry headed by Yolanda Díaz they defend the “legal intervention” of the Government to compensate the insufficiency of negotiation in certain sectors to avoid these “unfair” differences.

Along these lines, he defends a legal modification of the working day as a way to enforce article 40.2 of the Spanish Constitutionwhich says that public powers “will promote a policy that guarantees professional training and retraining; They will ensure safety and hygiene at work and guarantee the necessary restby limiting the working day, and periodic paid vacations.”

Also to promote favorable conditions for economic and social progress and for a more equitable distribution of personal income (article 40.1) or, likewise, the removal of obstacles and the promotion of conditions for the real and effective equality of individuals entrusted Article 9 of the Constitution.

Allows you to reduce working hours without loss of salary

Likewise, the document justifies the reduction of working hours as a way to distribute productivity that Spain has gained since the last legal reduction in working hours. Thus, remember that, with OECD data, productivity per hour worked increased by 30% between 1990 and 2022, while real salaries only increased by 11.5%.

«If we observe the evolution of productivity since 1983, when the maximum legal working day was established at 40 hours, we observe an increase in productivity per hour worked of the 54%«, they emphasize.

Likewise, remember that the weight of the remuneration of employed people on the GDP in Spain has been around 48% “for decades”, four points below France or Germany, despite the recovery experienced from values ​​closer to 45% between 2013 and 2018. That is why the Ministry believes that it is “a moral and political imperative” reduce the working day without cutting the salary.

Time control and right to disconnect

On the other hand, the Ministry indicates that the draft law that was put out for public consultation this Friday also aims to regulate time registration and unify in a single article the regulation of both full-time, part-time, ordinary and extraordinary work.

Thus, the aim is to develop an “effective” system for recording working hours, so as to achieve an “objective, reliable, accessible and interoperable” system. accessible to each worker automatically and which can also be accessed remotely by the representation of workers and the Labor Inspection (ITSS).

The consequences of non-compliance with time registrationboth from the substantive legal point of view – presumptions – and from the sanctioning point of view.

Likewise, it is intended to regulate in a single precept the right to disconnectincorporating some aspects of the Disconnection Agreement negotiated in the European Union and also of the VI AENC.

Thus, the aim is to define the inalienable right of the worker to disconnection outside of their working day, as well as the business duty to guarantee such right referring the modalities of exercise to collective bargaining, so that the rejection or failure to attend to communication by the worker outside of their working hours cannot give rise to negative consequences or retaliation or less favorable treatment.