The Ministry will also include the reduction of working hours in annual calculation and will study sanctions for each worker and not for each company.
The Secretary of State for Labor and Social Economy, Joaquín Pérez Rey, has conveyed to social agents a proposal for the reduction of the working day to 37.5 hours without salary reduction by 2025, which involves improving the time record and Labor and Social Security Inspection have remote access to this time control tool to avoid fraud.
“It is essential to prevent the seats from being altered or manipulated by the employer or another person,” said Pérez Rey upon leaving the second social dialogue table for the reduction of the working day, after the one held on the 25th. January and in which CCOO, UGT, CEOE and Cepyme asked to negotiate this matter among themselves, in parallel to the tripartite meetings with the Government.
Along these lines, Pérez Rey explained that the reform that has been proposed to unions and employers this Monday involves reforming article 34 of the Workers’ Statute to achieve a reduction in the working day in a phased manner: up to 38.5 hours for 2024, with the goal of reaching 37.5 hours in 2025.
To this end, Pérez Rey has indicated that it is “essential” that this reduction incorporates measures that have to do with the time record so that it is accessible by the Labor and Social Security Inspection remotely and thus guarantees its “integrity, transparency and control.”
“Spain has a debt with the European Union and, specifically, with the Court of Justice of the European Union, which asks us for the registry to be accessible, reliable and transparent and, therefore, we have informed the social partners what they are. the elements that make the time record comply with these requirements that derive from the European Union”, indicated Pérez Rey.
Likewise, it has committed that the improvement of the time record will be done thinking about the groups that have the greatest difficulty in incorporating these measures, which are small and medium-sized companies.
In addition, Labor has raised with the social partners the need to strengthen the sanctioning apparatus regarding working time so that it is “effective and sufficiently dissuasive” of behaviors that endanger full compliance with working hours regulations. In this sense, he has indicated that it will be explored that the sanctions are not produced by company, but by each worker.
On the other hand, Pérez Rey has clarified that the reduction in working hours will be carried out by guaranteeing its annual calculation to guarantee flexibility in the application of this reduction, both for employers and workers.
Thus, there will be two references in the law: the weekly working day and the working day calculated annually, since most of the agreements contemplate the working day in annual terms.
The Labor proposal for the reduction of working hours, a measure that will benefit some 12 million people, will be sent in writing to social agents in the coming days and will be discussed at an upcoming meeting that the Secretary of State for Labor has not yet specified. when it will occur.
UNIONS REQUEST AN EFFECTIVE TIME REGISTRATION FOR ALL COMPANIES
After the meeting, the unions made an assessment of the “verbal” proposal conveyed by Labor at this Monday’s meeting.
Regarding the time control system, the confederal secretary of Trade Union Action and Employment of CCOO, Mari Cruz Vicente, has urged to take “some type of measure” to guarantee that time registration in companies with less than 50 workers is effective and is done through means “that are reliable, that are not manipulable and therefore that time control is objective.”
Regarding companies with more than 50 workers, Vicente considers that not only must it be a reliable system to which the Labor Inspection has access, but that what is contemplated in the regulations must be complied with so that the legal representation of the workers also has access to it. workers and workers have timely information about their time record.
Likewise, and in addition to the reduction in working hours, the Secretary of Trade Union Action of CCOO has insisted that weekly breaks, overtime, vacations and issues related to the reconciliation of work and family life must also be addressed in this negotiation. and permits.
“There is also the issue of breastfeeding, which is pending because it was not actually approved in the unemployment benefit package and these are issues that we consider at CCOO that have to be on the table,” he explained.
Furthermore, CCOO considers that the time reference should be determined for agreements that are regulated on an annual basis and not weekly. “This reference must also be in the Workers’ Statute so that each person does not make an interested interpretation of what the reduction of the working day to 37.5 hours may be,” Vicente insisted.
The representative of CCOO has also pointed out that the “verbal” Labor proposal contemplates that the reduction in working hours reaches 38.5 hours per week “at the end of 2024” and 37.5 hours “at the end of 2025.”
For his part, the deputy secretary general of UGT, Fernando Luján, considers that the time record must provide the Labor Inspection with sufficient capacity to correspond to the hours actually worked, both ordinary and extraordinary.
UGT also applauds the Government’s intention to increase sanctions and individualize them. “But he has not given us a text that we can study,” Luján clarified.
Despite this, UGT considers that the Government’s proposal is going in the right direction and has assured that this will serve so that progress can be made at the other table, at the bipartite table with CEOE and Cepyme.
For Luján, the best way to reduce the working day and adapt it in the sectors of the different companies is through an agreement with the employers.
According to UGT calculations, the first step to reduce the working day proposed by the Government — to 38.5 hours — will mean an adaptation of the schedule for between 3 and 4 million workers, while the second step — to 37. 5 hours– will benefit almost 10 million workers.
In line with CCOO, UGT considers that we should also talk about flexibility, the rest period, how the European directive of transparent and predictable conditions is adapted, reductions in working hours and maternity.
The unions have denied that any matter has already been agreed upon both at the bipartite table with the employers and at the three-party table with the Government. In this sense, Vicente has indicated that he is still “everything open”, so negotiations will continue so that, to the extent possible, an agreement is sought in this regard.
“This is in a certain hurry because it also then has to go through parliamentary procedures, parliamentary procedures are long and we are going to see if we can make progress on these matters in a reasonable time,” stated the CCOO representative.
