More pay or fewer hours for the same thing: part-time employees would also benefit if the maximum working day is reduced

The debate over the reduction of the maximum legal working time focuses on the effects that the measure would have on full-time employees. However, the situation of part-time employees is often overlooked.. A priori it might seem that, by working fewer hours per week than the maximum established by law, they would not have to be affected if the working day were reduced from 40 to 37.5 hours per week, as the Government intends.. However, reality is different. And, whether through a higher salary or a reduction in working time, part-time workers would also see their conditions improved.. Of course, as long as the full working day agreed in your company is more than 37.5 hours per week.

The reason is that the conditions that part-time workers have are directly linked to what is established by the equivalent full-time day in that company.. That is, they have the same rights as their colleagues with full-time employment. Their working conditions – such as salaries or working hours – are linked to what is established for full days through coefficients.

Part-time contracts can be signed for a specific number of hours or can be linked to a percentage of the reference full day.. A point that is important when quantifying the consequences that reducing the working day to 37 and a half hours would have.. “Some will work less and others will increase their monthly salary,” summarizes Florentino Felgueroso, a Fedea researcher specialized in the labor market.

In the case of hourly contracts, the agreed working time represents a percentage of the equivalent full day.. If that percentage rises, your salary must also grow to maintain equivalence.. “Everything is set on that percentage.. If the reference goes down, the percentage of hours that I have contracted goes up,” explains Raúl Olmos, deputy to the Secretary of Union Action of CCOO, to 20minutos.

For example, in the case of a worker with a part-time work schedule of 20 hours per week – 50% of the current legal maximum of 40 hours – a reduction of the legal maximum to 37.5 would imply that his working day would become 53.3%.. Consequently, the employer would be obliged to raise the salary of that worker.. It could only reduce hours from the contract if the employee agrees, explains Olmos. Ana Ercoreca, president of the union of Labor and Social Security inspectors (SITSS), disagrees on this point.. When consulted by this newspaper, Ercoreca points out that the company could reduce this working day to 5 p.m., always maintaining the employee's salary and the right to compensation.

When part-time work is agreed as a percentage of full time, the effect is the opposite.. In these cases, the company would have to reduce the number of hours for the worker, but without lowering their salary, which is what the Executive intends.. Therefore, your hourly wage would increase. For example, a worker with a part-time contract for 50% of a full 40-hour day would go from working 20 hours a week to 18,725 hours earning the same salary if the legal maximum is reduced to 37.5 hours.

According to Olmos, hourly contracts are more common than those that set a percentage of the full day, especially in sectors such as domestic workers, where half of the employees are part-time.. In this second case, the trade unionist is betting that companies would increase the percentage of working hours to maintain the employee's working hours, which would imply a salary increase.

Complex and varied cases

The theory seems more or less clear. What is still unknown is how companies would adjust to this new reality.. Felgueroso points out that the cases will be very varied and difficult to predict. “A small company with two workers is not the same as one with 100 employees on staff that can adjust,” he says.. There will be companies that can face the changes without major problems and gain productivity, while others will be forced to hire, with the consequent increase in costs.

It is also not at all easy to estimate the impact that the reduction in working hours would have on part-time workers. In Spain there are 2.7 million workers with part-time shifts, half of them because they are not able to find full-time employment, according to data from the latest EPA.. However, hardly everyone would be affected by the reduction in the maximum legal hours.

To begin with, the measure would only affect employees of companies in which the working day is more than 37.5 hours. And in Spain, most collective agreements already include days of less than 40 hours. Specifically, the average is 38.3 and 14% of workers protected by this already work less than 37.5 hours a week.

At CCOO they point out that it is difficult to estimate the impact that the reduction in working hours would have on part-time workers. However, they calculate that, if the presence of these employees in companies with weeks of more than 37.5 hours were similar to those working full time, the measure would benefit about 2 million workers.

Furthermore, it must be taken into account that the working hours agreed in the different sectors of the Spanish economy are not the same.. In the same way that part-time workers concentrate especially on certain activities such as commerce or hospitality.

“If you look by occupations, there are two types of occupations that are already below 37.5 hours per week and that should not be affected: basic services and activities,” says Felgueroso, who cites the example of cleaning workers.. Nor is a great impact expected in the public sector, where 80% of workers have work days of less than 37.5 hours. The Fedea researcher believes that the measure will be especially noticeable among full-time workers in highly unionized traditional sectors.

Another group that should be especially affected by the reduction in working hours is domestic workers, where 50% of employees work part-time. In this sector there are no agreements in the absence of employers, so the workers are subject to the maximum work day of 40 hours currently established by the Workers' Statute.