Díaz warns that he will agree to reduce the working day only with the unions if he does not reach an agreement with the employers.
The second vice president of the Government and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, appeared this Monday at the Labor Commission of the Congress of Deputies to present what will be the main lines of action of the Government in labor matters throughout the legislature. Among the pending tasks, the leader of Sumar has highlighted the Executive's commitment to reduce the working day to 37.5 hours per week, a measure that has indicated that she will negotiate with the social agents, but that it will go ahead whether or not with the approval of the businessmen.
“We are going to carry out a reduction in the working day to 37.5 hours per week without a salary reduction,” said Díaz, in reference to the point agreed between PSOE and Sumar in their government agreement.. The agreement between both groups says goodbye to the 40-hour week, first setting the maximum legal working day at 38.5 hours per week in 2024 and finally lowering it to the promised 37.5 hours in 2025.. “Reducing the working day will also serve to improve productivity,” defended the minister, who explained that this initiative will be addressed together with the improvement of time control.. According to the leader of Sumar, the regulation of the daily registration of the day is “susceptible to being subtly reformed”, as also stated in the coalition pact with the PSOE.
To materialize the reduction in working hours, Díaz has emphasized his department's willingness to negotiate with employers and unions within the framework of social dialogue, as well as with different political groups.. However, the head of Labor has warned that, if the employers do not agree, the reduction will be agreed only with the workers' representatives. “We are going to try an agreement, which I would like to be tripartite; if it cannot be, it will be bipartite, but we are going to do it,” he stated, after ensuring that the initiative would benefit more than 12 million workers in the private sector.. “Social dialogue is what is important, then there will be an agreement or not,” he insisted.
“No one is saying that working hours cannot be reduced; in fact, there are sectors with more productivity that have less working hours,” responded the president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, during his participation in the Tourism Innovation-Hotusa Explora forum.. “Not all sectors are the same, that is why what we propose is that it be done sector by sector, at each table, which is how it has always been done,” he added.
The CEOE was already left out of the agreement signed last week by the Ministry of Labor and the unions to raise the minimum wage by 5% in 2024 to 1,134 gross euros per month in 14 full-time payments. The PP spokesperson on the Labor Commission, Alma Alfonso, has criticized precisely that the Government did not get the support of businessmen. “He has made it clear again with the increase in the minimum wage without taking into account those who pay the payroll, he ignores them, he neither listens to them nor they care what happens to them,” the popular deputy has disfigured Díaz.. “It's time to get to work, recover social dialogue,” he asked.
“We did not have to raise the minimum wage with social dialogue and we do it. “I am very grateful to the social agents, including the Spanish employers' association, for not getting up from any table,” said Díaz, who described as a “trap proposal” the approach put on the table by the CEOE to raise the minimum wage. “Sometimes employers' organizations dedicate themselves to something else that is far from the interests they should represent,” he criticized.
The minister has assured that the increase in the minimum wage has been the “main tool” used by the Government to redistribute the wealth generated within companies, given that since 2018 this income has increased by 54%. “As a country it was a moral duty, because the minimum wage we had in 2018 was a shame,” he stated.. “The minimum wage has been a powerful instrument to reduce inequality, the gender wage gap and working poverty,” he added, clarifying that the increase recently agreed with the unions will be accompanied by a change in personal income tax “to ensure that everything “The salary increase goes entirely to the people who earn it.”
Reform dismissal
In addition to reducing the working day, Díaz has also set the reform of the Workers' Statute as an objective for this legislature – for which he has announced the creation of a working commission with experts in the coming weeks – as well as the dismissal, to adapt it to the European Social Charter. The leader of Sumar has stressed that the dismissal must be “reparative and dissuasive.” “It is essential to eliminate automatic dismissal due to sudden disability,” he added as a milestone for a legislature in which he also plans for the Scholarship Statute to reach the Congress of Deputies “immediately.”
Another pending task is the modification of the unemployment benefit, which Podemos recently overturned in Congress. Díaz has stressed his intention to recover a good part of the points included in the failed reform, such as the increase in the amount, coverage for those under 45 years of age without family responsibilities and for temporary agricultural workers, the elimination of the month's wait to start to collect it and its compatibility with work for a period of up to 180 days. The head of Labor has also committed to extending maternity and paternity leave to 20 weeks and to pay four weeks of parental leave for child care.
Likewise, the minister has stressed the need to continue reducing unemployment, despite celebrating the strength of the Spanish labor market, which closed 2023 with record employment figures.. “Unemployment is, along with housing, the main problem of our country,” he stated.. “There is still much to do but we are taking steps in the right direction,” he concluded.