The Second Vice President of the Government and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, has taken advantage of the last May Day of this legislature to announce a law that will reduce the working day. Four weeks before the regional and municipal elections and a few months before the general elections, the person in charge of Labor assures that “the time has come to reduce the working day” and that “shortly” she will present the law on the use of time. “We want decent wages, more and better wages, but we also want free time, to reduce the working day without reducing wages, to place time and care at the center of economic activity,” said Yolanda Díaz in a speech prior to the start of the May Day demonstration called by the UGT and CC OO unions and attended by up to six ministers of the Government of Pedro Sánchez, including of course the Minister of Labor.
This time use law is part of the PSOE-Podemos coalition program, although it does not explicitly mention a reduction in working hours; something that the second vice president has done this Monday. Although it was scheduled to be approved in 2022, time has passed and now there are barely seven months left in the legislature to approve it. At the time of her, Díaz defended a flexible working day for the worker and for the company.
In addition, Yolanda Díaz valued the reduction of temporary employment in the private sector and stressed that it must also be reduced in the public sector: «The time has come to tell workers in health, education, justice, They have the right to be stable.
For her part, the Minister for Equality, Irene Montero, insisted that “mortgages must be stopped and food prices intervened” and repeated again that companies in the food sector have “unpresentable benefits.”
raise wages
The UGT and CC OO unions and the Government of Pedro Sánchez support each other on this May Day, which they consider “decisive” also politically. The motto is ‘Raise wages, lower prices, spread profits’. The six executive ministers who participate in the demonstrations called by the centrals are: in Madrid, the second vice president of the Government and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz; the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero; the Minister of Consumption, Alberto Garzón, and the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero. Díaz and Garzón repeat for the second consecutive year in the Madrid march. The Government spokesperson and Minister of Territorial Policy, Isabel Rodríguez, this year attends the call in Puertollano; and the Minister of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta, attends the union call in Barcelona.
In addition, Pedro Sánchez has sent a message via Twitter congratulating May 1 and recalling the legislation: «The labor reform, the SMI at 1,080 euros, revaluing today’s pensions and guaranteeing tomorrow’s, promoting the FP law and Science to create more and better jobs. And all with social peace. To reform is not to cut back. It is to dignify and protect the working class.
Along the same lines, the general secretary of the UGT, Pepe Álvarez, made a passionate defense of the measures approved by the central government, such as the housing law or the rise in pensions with the CPI (8.5% increase in benefits this year); he even went so far as to suggest that “it is not known whether in a different political situation these conditions will be maintained.”
For his part, the CCOO general secretary indicated that this May 1st is “very close” to the beginning of a “transcendental political cycle for Spain”, with the regional and municipal elections on May 28. And he asked that this be a day “balance sheet” of the advances in labor and pensions that have been achieved in this legislature.
The unions have called demonstrations in more than 70 cities in Spain, in a context of tension with the employers due to the stagnation of the negotiation of the V Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC). They notify the CEOE employers that if there is no agreement “there will be a conflict.” Unai Sordo warned that, if there is no agreement on wage increases in the collective agreements, the unions “will organize mobilizations that will end in a general mobilization in the autumn.” Sordo qualified that the role of the unions will be to “organize, not convene.”
The salary increase has also been claimed by the Minister of Labor, who has stressed that “the Government has done what it had to do, raise the SMI by 47%. Now it’s up to the bosses to fulfill their obligations. It is essential to raise wages.” Díaz explained that the median salary (the most frequent) in Spain is 21,000 euros, which is less than 1,500 euros in 14 payments, a salary “that does not allow us to live with dignity in many Spanish cities.” For this reason, the minister called on the employers to “immediately and imminently, in May, close a Collective Bargaining Agreement.”
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