The government is considering approving the initiative to reduce working hours as a matter of urgency
The extraordinary CEOE Executive Committee, which met on Tuesday 5 November, unanimously rejected the Ministry of Labour's proposal for a legal reduction in working hours.
In this debate, there are two pieces that are going to be altered: ‘one is the digital time register and the other is the right to digital disconnection. The digital register is the great lever of change to follow the temporary contracting model’, comment experts consulted by Economist & Jurist.
For Alberto Novoa, labour partner at RocaJunyent, ‘the reduction of the working week to 37.5 hours is undoubtedly one of the major reforms that will have an impact on the Spanish business fabric in recent years, since, if there are no last-minute rectifications or modifications by the Government, this measure will be implemented without the support of the CEOE, which has described the measure as an illegitimate interference in collective bargaining’.
‘The CEOE has based its rejection of the reduction in working hours on two arguments: since the implementation by law of the maximum working week of 40 hours, it has been the social partners, within the framework of collective bargaining, who have negotiated the distribution of working hours in the different collective agreements applicable in this country’, he warns.
For Novoa, ‘toa certain extent, this is natural, given that, starting from the imperative legal framework of a maximum working week of 40 hours, it is logical that the parties entitled to set the distribution of the working week and even reduce it from the maximum limit of 40 hours a week have been the collective bargainers, who are aware of the sector in which they operate and of the obstacles that come with rigid rules that do not allow working hours to be adapted to the special circumstances of each sector’.
‘Working time, in my view, is an area of the employment relationship in which only sectoral negotiators should intervene on the basis of the maximum working time that is already established. Any legislative and generalised interference in that framework is unlikely to bring overall benefits,’ he says.
In his opinion, ‘this reduction means that the working day for Spaniards will not exceed 1,712 hours per year, which directly impacts on most, if not all, of the agreements in force in our country, which exceed this limit’.
Alberto Novoa raises the question of whether ‘Spain is prepared for this measure when most of the Spanish business fabric revolves around the tourism and hospitality sector’.
In his opinion, ‘there is no doubt that, although a 37.5-hour working day will help many people to improve their possibilities of reconciling family, personal and work life, it is also true that, in certain sectors, it will mean great challenges in the organisation of shifts and, with this, significant labour costs’.
This expert recalls that ‘aware of the costs that this new amendment will entail, the government has announced a series of support measures consisting of direct aid of up to 6,000 euros for companies with fewer than five workers (micro-enterprises) and small companies in the retail, hotel and catering, hairdressing, cleaning and agriculture sectors, the sectors with the greatest gap’.
‘In addition, there will be no wage reduction for full-time workers and limits on overtime will be maintained, with the announcement of tougher sanctions by the Labour Inspectorate,’ he warns.
In his opinion, ‘in the 15th we will see the impact and how Spanish companies adapt to this new measure that is here to stay, and we will be able to see if all the positive effects of a measure announced as a revulsive measure to guarantee the work-life balance of workers will truly guarantee their rights, without this leading to a drop in the productivity of companies’.
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