The negotiation for the reduction of working hours is in decisive hours. The employers’ association continues to refuse to present their own written proposals to define a law that would reduce the working week to 37.5 hours per weekbut the unions are pushing to close the negotiations before September. In order for this to happen and for the CEOE I ended up reaching an agreement, CCOO would be willing to agree to delay the entry into force of the reduction beyond the January 1, 2025.
“The regulation must be resolved now, this month or immediately, another thing is when it comes into force. We can talk regarding that, but with a clear understanding of the scenario. The decision cannot be delayed, this has to be resolved in the summer without any doubt,” declared the general secretary of CCOO, Unai Sordoat a press conference this Monday in Barcelona. Carrot on one side, stick on the other. And the union leader has also threatened demonstrations in the autumn if the conclusion of the negotiations is delayed.
Sordo made these statements while his negotiating team, together with those of UGTCEOE and the Ministry of Laborare holding a new meeting of the social dialogue to address this issue. The unions do not want to miss the opportunity to improve the working conditions of the vast majority of workers by law.
According to the estimates made by the central government, in Catalonia some two million workers, that is, three out of every four private sector employees, would see their maximum annual working hours reduced. This would benefit men more than women and would have a transversal impact, from industry to commerce and services, including the primary sector.
The uncertainty regarding how this negotiation will end is already weighing down the wage increases in collective agreements. Faced with uncertainty regarding what the maximum working hours will be next year, companies are delaying the revocation of agreements with unions, as is happening, according to CCOO, in the textile, meat and chemical industries.
“The Government has to endure”
Business sectors have begun to launch messages once morest the legal reduction of working hours, such as the event organised by Cepyme and sponsored by Isabel Díaz Ayuso in Madrid last week. The leader of CCOO has warned that the pressure from economic powers for the Executive to desist from its electoral promise will be great and that “the Government has to endure”.
Last week, the message began to spread from Moncloa that the negotiations have a long way to go and that Yolanda Díaz should extend them to try to reach an agreement with the employers, even if this would prevent the reduction from coming into effect on January 1, 2025, as established in the Government agreement. The Minister of Economy, Carlos Bodywas responsible for verbalizing it in public, asking that “the important thing is to find a balance.”
The unions have also stated that they would welcome the employers’ association joining in, but they do not want to drag out the negotiations. Sordo has called for negotiations to be concluded before September, even if the agreement’s entry into force may be delayed. This Monday, Yolanda Díaz presented a new written proposal to the social agents to try to bring the CEOE closer to the issue.
Mobilizations in autumn
Sordo has brandished the threat of mobilizations already this autumn if the Government delays negotiations beyond September. “We urge the Government to be brave. The union will not give up on an agreement, but if the business organizations continue to remain silent in response, the Government must put together a sufficient parliamentary majority“We ask the parties in the majority of the investiture not to falter. No political force can remain on the sidelines,” he demanded.
Here those who will play a capital role are together and the PNVwithout which it is impossible, de facto, to process the norm, independently of the support that it ends up receiving in the social dialogue. The influence of the historical Catalan employers’ association Foment del Treball on the former worries CCOO. “Foment del Treball is a battering ram for the CEOE to express its contrary position,” criticised the general secretary of the union in Catalonia, Javier Pacheco. He has insisted that “margins in the business fabric [para reducir la jornada] there are” and that they will not allow the opponents to touch the “trumpets of the apocalypse” as they did with the 2021 labor reform.
Sordo has insisted that companies have margins to assume the increase in the salary cost per hour worked that the reduction in working hours will entail and has asked the Government not to give up on this, because this way it encourages those companies that win. productivity through innovative systems, not by devaluing salaries or lengthening the working hours of their employees. “We need to define the working playing field for the companies of the future,” he said.
