Pimec does not rule out going to court if its entry into the CES is not made effective.

BarcelonaIn May, before the summer holidays, Pimec presented its accounts and took advantage of the opportunity to demand its entry into the Economic and Social Council (CES), something that, as the president of the employers' association, Antoni Cañete, has been reminding us, "the law says so." In fact, back in May 2024, the Official State Gazette (BOE) published that the Spanish government had given the CES plenary session three months to modify the internal operating regulations and include Pimec. Now, Cañete is raising his voice. The deadlines have not been met, and when asked about the minutes and results of this issue that Pimec has been dragging on for years, Cañete explained that "the organization's board of directors has expired so far this year, and since June 2025, the presidency has also expired."

At this point, Cañete stated during the presentation of theSME Yearbook Pimec has not ruled out going to court if the situation does not improve before the end of the year. "The law is not being complied with; there is a commitment that entry into the ESC will be effective before the end of the year, and if this is not the case by January 2026, we will do what we have to," said the president of the employers' association. He also announced that "the next effective entry will be, of course, into the EESC—the European ESC—of which Pimec will be a member for the first time."

Tightening time control

Pimec celebrated the fact that the proposed law to reduce the working week to 37.5 hours a week was not passed, as it believes that "we can talk about working hours and reducing hours, but it must be done through dialogue" with social and economic stakeholders. In fact, the fact that it was an agreement between the Spanish government and the unions has been one of the reasons that has angered the various employers' and business associations, who denounce the exclusion and lack of dialogue on an issue that directly concerns them.

Faced with the failure of the reduction in working hours, now the Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, is betting on tighten time control at work. The department has already launched the law to put it to a vote, but everything indicates that the business community is also opposed. Regarding this proposal, Cañete is clear: "If this is about sanctions and making it impossible to do work in certain sectors, we are making a mistake," he asserted. "We're raising it again: whenever you want, let's talk about time control, digital disconnection, etc. Working time is what we need to discuss," he added.

SMEs and productivity

Catalan SMEs contributed 66.2% of employment in Catalonia in 2023 and 60.4% of gross added value (GVA), according to theYearbook of the Catalan SME, prepared by Pimec and presented this Wednesday by the president of the SME Observatory of Catalonia, Oriol Amat, at an event also attended by the Secretary General of Business and Employment of the Generalitat, Pol Gibert, and the regional director for Catalonia of Banco Sabadell, Xavier Comerma.

Amat lamented that both the employment rate and GVA of SMEs have decreased compared to the previous year, and noted that this is also the case in other neighboring countries and that this is because as companies grow in size, they capture a larger share of the economy.

He also explained that average productivity per employee in 2023 stood at €77,407 per year, although SMEs had a productivity per employee of €70,555 and large companies of €90,841. "As a company grows in size, it generates more productivity per employee," he said, adding that companies need to be as large as possible, as they generate more wealth.

In any case, productivity fell by 2% in 2023, with a greater impact on large companies (-5.5%) than on SMEs (-0.7%), due to the increase in employment in the services and construction sectors, which provide little added value, and a reduction in manufacturing. Cañete, however, said that the data "show that SMEs remain a dominant and essential player in the country's productive structure."