Despite the suspension of the meeting between the Ministry of Labor, the employers and the unions scheduled for this Monday, in which the closing of the negotiation table was expected after CEOE and Cepyme communicated last week their definitive rejection of the proposal of reduction of working hoursthe pulse of the new phase in which the legislative project of the star measure of the second vice president Yolanda Díaz has entered was maintained. UGT and CC.OO. They began a round of contacts with political parties to try to gather support and facilitate a parliamentary process that is expected to be complex taking into account that the Government has not yet secured even the votes that support the coalition.
The first two meetings held this Monday led to the leaders of UGT and CC.OO. to the Basque Country. While after the meeting with the management of Bildu The support of the training for the reduction of the working day to 37.5 hours by law and without salary reduction was confirmed, as Unai Sordo communicated, the first of the meetings with the PNV It left more questions about eventual support in Congress. In fact, the main message that the president of the formation Andoni Ortuzar conveyed to the union leaders is that they insist on seek an agreement with the CEOEdespite the unsuccessful attempts in recent months in which Labor has put various aid measures on the table to try to mitigate the economic impact, especially among companies with less than ten workers.
In this sense, despite the fact that the tone of the meeting with the PNV was “positive”, the unions have not been able to secure eventual parliamentary support that will be necessary to give the green light to the reduction of working hours. “If the CEOE does not open new perspectives, it will be difficult for progress to be made at the (tripartite) negotiation table,” said the general secretary of the UGT, Pepe Álvarez, explaining not in vain that “it is true that once the Government approves the legislative modification and send it to the Congress of Deputies, there is a time we have to take advantage ofa magnificent time to be able to surely move forward, if there is no change on the part of the CEOE before that date. Referring to the fact that the bill will allow room for negotiation, since the deadlines would also open a period of amendments.
Analyze the impact on SMEs
At this point, the PNV previously appealed to the union organizations to continue negotiating the reduction of working hours and to be able to reach a tripartite agreement so that the text presented in the Cortes achieves “the maximum consensus and have maximum support».
The objective, as explained by the PNV, is that the text that reaches the Cortes “gains the maximum consensus and has the maximum support.” At the meeting, the training management promised to study in depth any proposal that could be sent to the PNV, “with the determination already declared to try to make the improvement of workers’ working conditions compatible with economic viability and organizational of companies.
Specifically, the PNV referred above all to those companies that operate in those sectors in which, due to their characteristics, “the application of the reduction of working hours may be more complex, especially hospitality, services and micro-SMEs».
Unai Sordo (CC.OO.) assures in this regard that the problem is that CEOE “has already said, exhaustively, that it is not in the business of agreeing on a reduction by law, and that, in any case, it should be done through the collective bargaining.
«The PNV prefers it to be product of a tripartite agreement and we too because it is much more operational to be able to later bring into collective agreements not only the reduction of working hours, but also the irregular distribution of working time or time control when this reduction in working hours is the product of a tripartite agreement. But at this moment, unfortunately, I do not see it as feasible,” Sordo said, pointing out that the PNV is “aware of that circumstance and they will explain exactly what their position is.”
The leader of UGT, recalls the CEOE, “continues at the starting point and has not moved.” Álvarez questions whether CEOE would agree to go to that 37.5-hour day “once they can conclude a whole series of issues that help ensure there is a reasonable transit time so that the country’s productive system can assume it.” .
“That is the question to which CEOE has not responded to usthey continue in the no and now every day they come out with a new story, now they say to go to collective bargaining when we have had the negotiation of the collective bargaining agreement a year and a half ago and they have not wanted to talk about the day. “What makes us think that now they want to talk about the day?” he asks.
Álvarez stated after the meetings that it is “time for legal support” regarding this reduction in working hours. After reiterating that they are willing to negotiate with the CEOE, warning that “time has run out because the legislature is passing” and they want it to be approved in this legislature.
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