Yolanda Díaz offers up to 6,000 euros of direct aid to companies with less than five workers for the reduction of working hours

In this sense, the Government has issued an ultimatum to CEOE and Cepyme so that the next November 11 in one last meeting communicate whether or not they accept the joint proposal for the reduction of working hours plan, to which are added the bonuses for hiring new workers and extending part-time working hours due to the implementation of the reduction in working hours, in this case for companies of up to ten workers, in addition to the support plan for these small businesses via SEPE.

Not in vain, despite this latest transfer, it seems complex for the organizations led by Antonio Garamendi and Gerardo Cuerva to accept the joint proposal, since the business organizations insist on maintaining distribution and fixing of the working day within the perimeter of the collective bargaining. In the event that the employers say “no” to this last proposal, the Secretary of State for Labor, Joaquin Perez Reyhe said that a bilateral negotiation will be held with the unions in which the geometry of the proposal would change. That is, the Government warns that If CEOE and Cepyme do not sign the agreement, the aid could be withdrawn for companies.

In any case, Yolanda Díaz’s number two pointed out that this table’s days are numbered since the normative text that will result in a reform of the Workers’ Statute to collect all 37.5 hours by law and proceed to the approval of a preliminary project that would begin its parliamentary process in the last stages of 2024. In this case, the measure It would not be approved at least until spring 2025.

With this movement, the Ministry of Labor seems to recognize the blow in terms of costs that the reduction of working hours can mean for smaller companies. Both the direct aid of up to 6,000 euros and the hiring bonuses seem in any case insufficient to compensate for the cost that the implementation of the 37.5 hours will entail for the productive fabric, which would be at least close to 12,000 million euros per year. cutting hours without loss of pay. A fact that does not suggest a change in position on the part of the employerswho maintain the position of carrying out a sectoral observation in the collective agreements of each company, activity, province or region.

As business sources consulted by ABC recently pointed out, this movement of direct aid to smaller businesses has to do with a clear concern from the Ministry of Labor, aware that in these companies with less than five workers there is already destroying jobs. Thus, sources of CEOE They point out after the last meeting this Tuesday that the employers continue to defend the framework of the last National Agreement of Agreements (AENC) that addressed in one of its points the distribution of the working day and “that collective agreements are respected”.

Concessions to companies

In this sense, the Government has been trying to soften the incipiently negative position of the employers’ association, which has demanded from the beginning that the approach to working time be limited to the scope of collective bargaining, where employers and unions have open more than 4,000 negotiation tables in which working conditions are determined at the company level, sectors, provinces, regions, taking into account the various particularities that determine the scope of operation of the different activities.

However, despite this position that implies a basic rejection, the Ministry of Labor has been putting successive concessions on the table to try to attract CEOE and Cepyme to the tripartite agreement with the unions, which would also provide the future bill with a better expectation in the also rocky parliamentary process that is expected once the Council of Ministers gives the green light to the measure.

First, the reasonable doubt was raised about the deadlinessince the Government agreement that gave rise to the negotiation for the reduction of working time provided for a first reduction to 38.5 hours in 2024 and until 37.5 hours in 2025. The employers demanded temporary flexibility to give at least time to the expiration of collective agreements so that a funnel of multiple negotiations to adjust this precept would not be encouraged. A point that the Ministry of Labor considered in a certain sense, giving a deadline of next year to transfer this aspect to the agreements between companies and workers.

In the second instance, CEOE and Cepyme warned of the diverse impact that this measure would have on the different sectors of activity, since the specificities of operation make adaptation extremely difficult in some cases, while in other areas this 37.5-hour day is already implemented by agreement. According to what they point out, at this time the average working day agreed by agreement for the 12 million employees under this umbrella is around 38.2 hours per week.

Here, Yolanda Díaz’s department proposed making the irregular distribution of the day of work, maintaining the maximum allowed over the limits established with the current work day and not over the new one of 37.5 hours. However, the scope of this concession is null since the proposal maintains the maximum of 180 hours per year to be distributed irregularly. An aspect already included in the Workers’ Statute from which sectors with marked peaks of activity benefit, in which companies are allowed to concentrate schedules and for workers to work days in excess of eight hours a day.