The reduction of the working day without a salary reduction was the star measure of Sumar’s electoral campaign and the pillar with which the second vice president of the Government, Yolanda Díaz, wants to build the political legacy of her portfolio in this second term. That partly explains the harshness with which this Friday he attacked the Minister of Economic Affairs, Carlos Body, in whom he personifies the battle with the PSOE to carry out this measure.
The Minister of Labor has put aside her strategy of not making noise within the Government coalition in the face of the movements that come to her from the Economy to slow down the speed that she wants to give to the processing of the reduction of the working day to 37 and a half hours, a once agreed within the social dialogue with the unions.
Negotiations between the two parts of the Government have been tense in recent weeks over two main issues, according to elDiario.es at the end of December. On the one hand, the date of entry into force of the application of the measure and, on the other, how the reduction in the working day affects part-time contracts.
Yolanda Díaz insists that the government agreement must be fulfilled. That is, the law must be approved before the end of 2025, as both forces signed in the legislative agreement that made possible the inauguration of Pedro Sánchez and the formation of the new coalition government.
In order to achieve this in a timely manner, the processing of the law should not take long to get underway. That is why Labor is putting pressure on the PSOE to be able to approve the text in the Council of Ministers as soon as possible. If the Government intends to comply with the terms of the agreement, the rule must be approved urgently in the coming weeks so that it can be validated by the Cortes before the end of the year.
But Economía handles other times and proposes that the application could be delayed beyond 2025, for example in the cases of collective agreements already signed, until the end of their validity, as the employers claimed, which could delay the reduction of working hours for several years. more, something they resist at Work.
Although the negotiations are taking place in a more or less discreet manner, statements by Corps this week in the Chain Being They angered the Minister of Labor. The head of Economy asked to “continue working to find a balanced text” and develop “an accompanying plan so that companies are able to digest this change and do so in a sustained manner.” A plan, he said, with measures that help companies increase their productivity.
“What Minister Corps is saying and has put it in writing is first that he positions himself on the side of the employers and wants to delay the entry into force and not comply with the agreement and second […] “that the element of partiality be eliminated from that agreement, that is, hitting the Spanish workers,” lamented the second vice president in an interview in RNE this Friday. “I have in writing what the PSOE wants: to attack the rights of women in our country. To question partiality in Spain today is to hit working women. “That women who are shop assistants, stockers or who work in the hospitality industry cannot have the same rights that other workers have,” he concluded.
In that same conversation, almost monographic on the reduction of working hours, Díaz said on several occasions that he did not understand why a socialist minister, elected by a party that has just approved in its ideological bases a more ambitious reduction in working hours than the one is working, opposes a measure like this. The minister raised her tone so much that she was on the verge of calling the minister a “bad person.” “We are talking about reducing the working day by half an hour a day, it is almost a bad person to tell workers no to reducing the working day by half an hour a day,” he said.
After these words, the socialist part of the Government, through the Ministry of Economy, stated that the measure is “a priority” and stated that it will work to make it a reality “as soon as possible.” Carlos Body’s department added: “Taking into account the parliamentary reality and the success of past reforms, such as the labor reform, ambitious in their objectives and balanced in their design.”
The apostille is directed at one of the big problems that the Government is having in taking measures forward in this legislature, the parliamentary complexity that leaves few alternatives if Junts, for example, leaves the equation. Díaz, in fact, usually appeals to the PP when he talks about this measure which, as he recalls, has great acceptance among the right-wing electorate.
Those around Díaz do not understand why the PSOE postpones a measure like this under the argument that it needs parliamentary support when most of the regulations that have come from the Government have been approved in the Council of Ministers before having the support tied up in the Congress. That is why they are asking their partner to send it to Las Cortes as soon as possible.
Yolanda Díaz defended this Friday that the norm has broad parliamentary support, since it is a measure that “three out of every four” Spaniards support, regardless of the party they vote for. In fact, the minister is already speaking directly with Carles Puigdemont to try to tie the support of his seven deputies to the reform, which she does not consider lost at all.
The fight between Economy and Labor returns
This new confrontation between ministries brings reminiscences of the great battles between partners of the last legislature. Yolanda Díaz used to clash with Nadia Calviño when the current president of the European Investment Bank sat at the head of the Economy portfolio with the rank of first vice president. Just a year ago, both ministers had just closed a dispute over unemployment benefits similar to the one that occurred with the negotiations for the increase in the minimum wage or during the processing of the labor reform.
Corps was Secretary of State during Calviño’s time at the head of the Economy and now that he has assumed the reins of the ministry, the clashes are repeated despite the change of names. In the background is the dispute over the way of understanding the economic management of two forces with different visions.
“Not even Calviño dared to do so much,” said this Friday the leader of Sumar in the Government, who reproached the minister for wanting to skip an agreement with the unions, which she considered “sacred.” “I am once again the only one whose powers are invaded,” the vice president also complained after the minister spoke this week about the minimum wage. Despite the obstacles in the wheel, Díaz argued in that interview, the PSOE will later boast of this measure.
“Spain was going to burden me with the ERTE, with the labor reform… and today they boast about the minimum wage. With the reduction of the working day, the same thing will happen,” he defended.
#fight #PSOE #Sumar #reduction #working #hours #increases #tone
