The Council of Ministers approves the reduction of working hours, and Díaz sees room to avoid the veto by Junts and the PP.

MadridThe reduction of the working week to 37.5 hours reached the second round of the Council of Ministers' proposals this Tuesday. under the watchful eye of JuntsThe Spanish government has given the green light to the draft bill that will now make its way to the Congress of Deputies, where, for the moment, Pedro Sánchez's government does not have the guaranteed votes of its investiture partners, nor of the opposition. In fact, Carles Puigdemont's party threatened to overturn the law with a comprehensive amendment, although it remains open to negotiations to try to achieve a different text that includes, in particular, exceptions for Catalonia.

In any case, this scenario does not worry the Ministry of Labor. In a press conference following the Cabinet meeting, Díaz asserted that she sees room for negotiation with Carles Puigdemont's party, but also with the PP, and downplayed the pressure from business organizations on both parties, despite the parade of employers' associations that have passed through Waterloo, led by Foment del Treball and Pimec. In fact, the latter was quick to react to Tuesday's move: "The reduction in working hours represents an unsustainable increase in labor costs for SMEs," asserted the president of Pimec, Antonio Cañete, in a press release. The Catalan employers' association warns that it will defend the measure's "unfeasibility" before the political parties in Congress.

"Political parties decide on their own, and I know they are not made by employers," Díaz noted. It should be remembered that the text approved by the Spanish government only has the approval of the unions, CCOO and UGT, because the Spanish employers' association, CEOE, distanced itself from it, an element that sources at the Ministry of Labour and Employment link to internal disagreements within the business community.

Exceptions for Catalonia

"The [Spanish] government has delivered today, and now popular sovereignty, that is, the Congress of Deputies, must speak," the Minister of Labor insisted. This puts the ball in the court of the Spanish lower house. But what about once we're here?

Despite the optimism felt at the treball, the road ahead doesn't look easy. After doing so on Monday, the spokesperson in the Congress of Deputies, Míriam Nogueras, once again attacked the current text of the working day: "We say no to a law that has only been negotiated with the Spanish union lobby [CCOO and UGT], and that puts pressure on small and medium-sized businesses and the self-employed and puts many jobs at risk." Nogueras insisted that her Plan A is to present a comprehensive amendment to the current draft law. In any case, sources from the Ministry of Labor explain that the negotiation machinery is underway at all levels, including Waterloo.

The key to whether the Ministry of Labor and Juntos ultimately reach an agreement lies in the possible exceptions for small and medium-sized Catalan businesses, as well as for the self-employed. "Catalan productivity is double the Spanish average, and therefore, the Catalan business community has its own profile," Díaz acknowledged this Tuesday. The minister also noted that 30 percent of the new collective bargaining agreements signed in Catalonia are already below 37 hours.

During the negotiations with the social partners, Díaz shelved measures such as direct aid to companies to help them adapt to reduced working hours. Other measures related to absenteeism or specific sectoral requirements could be added to this issue. Treball's intention would be that, even if Carles Puigdemont's party presents an amendment to the entire bill, an agreement could be reached so that it can be withdrawn, allowing the bill to be processed and amendments to be submitted.

This Tuesday, the Minister of Labor also looked at the People's Party (PP), on whom she focused her remarks during the press conference. "Will Mr. Feijóo maneuver to overturn the reduction of the working week to 37.5 hours? Does he want to harm the country as he did with the labor reform?" Díaz asked. The minister asked the PP to clarify its position, following the PP's about-face on this matter: "I would like to know which Feijóo I will be facing," she concluded. The PP leader, in fact, addressed this issue this Tuesday at the Círculo de Economía conference in Barcelona, ​​where he criticized the Spanish government for "imposing" this measure, but did not clarify his position. The conservative leader criticized the Sánchez administration for not talking "about either productivity or absenteeism" and asserted that the country's main problem is not the working day, but wages.

The role of unions

"[Junts' amendment to the whole] is a democratic fraud," asserted the leader of the CCOO (COO), Unai Sordo, on Monday. Sordo criticized Puigdemont's party for practicing "obstructionism." From UGT Catalunya, and in a more conciliatory tone, its general secretary, Camil Ros, stated that "what he understands" is that Junts' presentation of the amendment to the whole is "with a willingness to negotiate." "I hope the amendment to the whole becomes amendments in the parliamentary process," he added to SER Catalunya on Tuesday. He also expressed his willingness to return to Waterloo to convince Junts leader Carles Puigdemont to negotiate again.

At the beginning of February, the Council of Ministers approved the text in the first round and via the urgent procedure. The future regulation not only includes a reduction in the working week from 40 to 37.5 hours, but also stipulates that it must be implemented without wage devaluation and before December 31, 2025, something that social stakeholders consider complicated given the current calendar. It also reinforces digital disconnection and time recording.

According to calculations by the Ministry of Labor, the reduction in working hours will benefit 12.5 million workers. Of these, 2.4 million are in the retail sector; 2 million in industry; and 1.4 million in the hospitality industry. By autonomous community, more than 6 million workers in Catalonia, Madrid, and Andalusia will benefit.