Unai Sordo urges Murcia to close the agreement on the 37 and a half hour day before the summer | The truth

After ensuring that the agreement is very advanced, he urged the Government and employers to definitively close the negotiation process for the new framework of 37 and a half hours per week, which he said is practically outlined. And that in this way it would be transferred to the agreements for its application in Spain next year and in the following year. From there we would move towards “the long-term goal of 35 hours.”

The objective has to be “to reach full employment as soon as possible. And, furthermore, this can be done, with formulas such as those that we have been indicating from the union organizations. Among others, the reduction of working time stands out,” said the leader. national CC OO in his previous appearance before the media, accompanied by the regional general secretary, Santiago Navarro.

“It is time to reduce the working day in Spain by law. And before this summer, that is, by July and August, it would have to be confirmed and ratified,” emphasized Unai Sordo. “In our opinion, this reduction is compatible with the generation of employment. Furthermore, we are convinced that in the medium-long term it would be a measure that would generate new jobs and, in addition, would favor the best business projects, those that in the future they will generate benefits and improve their productivity.

Therefore, progress is being made to go “not along the path of labor exploitation, low salaries and endless days, but rather along the path of permanent qualification, training, digitalization and the improvement of work,” he added. And he put the focus especially on the agricultural sector.

Both union leaders denounced the attitude of the employers' associations when it came to promoting wage increases. And he expressly pointed to Agro. Sordo points to a blockade in some sectors for the increase in the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI), as well as for the reduction of temporary employment and the reduction of the working day. And “the systematic refusal of agricultural employers' associations to renew collective agreements in the countryside seems to us to be a scandal.”

Regarding collective bargaining in the Region of Murcia, Santiago Navarro clarified that currently “we have negotiated agreements and therefore in force for about 160,000 workers, although we still have 19 pending agreements, which are 40%, and which affects about 140,000 workers. Among the blocked sectoral agreements, eight appear, among which is that of harvesting and producing companies of tomato, lettuce and other agricultural products, commonly known as the “field” agreement, which affects about 15,000 workers and is negotiated with the employers. Proexport. Although on Tuesday the negotiating commission was established.

Also pending, according to CC OO, are producers of fruits, vegetables, and table grapes; handling and packaging of fresh fruit; handling and packaging of fresh tomatoes; and the handling and export of fresh fruits. Five other agreements, such as the one for the transport of goods by road, are in the negotiation phase at the mediation office. In addition, there are many others that expired with the closing of 2023 and must be renewed, such as sawmilling and manufacturing of containers, packaging and wooden pallets.

Discrimination of fixed-discontinuous

Likewise, the assembly meeting was used to vindicate the group of discontinuous permanent workers, who in the Community exceeds the barrier of 100,000 workers, in the face of the discrimination they suffer due to contract, compared to a temporary worker in the same activity, since in a situation of sick leave in this case he receives based on his total salary, while the discontinued permanent employee receives based on what he has worked in the last three months.

The regional secretary of CC OO recalled that the article of the General Social Security Law was reformed “but it is still not being complied with” and, in addition, the workers managed to obtain in the courts “that a regulatory basis was also paid”, but Following a ruling from a court in Valencia, “they are changing the entire criteria that the judges in the Region of Murcia maintained, which seems absurd to us, an outrage, thus changing what even the Supreme Court had maintained.”

“It is not acceptable that after having made it clear that those hired as permanent-discontinuous workers can access sick leave benefits due to common contingencies, they do so in a situation of inequality with respect to other workers,” Sordo insisted. Hence, “we demand clarification from the Government through internal regulatory development so that there can be no legal interpretation.”