UGT denounces that the working day will take up to 30 years to reach 37.5 hours if the law does not require it.
The union criticizes the fact that the employers have increased the working hours of the staff when they could have.
BarcelonaIn 2024, the collective bargaining agreements registered in Catalonia stipulated an average working day of 1,748 hours. Looking back ten years, that figure has only been reduced by one hour. This is the evolution presented this Monday by the UGT (Catalan Workers' Union) to "debunk a myth" recently promoted by employers: that collective bargaining will take care of reducing the working day sector by sector and that the legislative change promoted by the Spanish government to reduce it to 37.5 hours is unnecessary.
According to the union's calculations, at the current rate, weekly hours worked would not reach these levels for another three decades. In its projection, the organization considered three possible scenarios. In the most optimistic scenario, where the reduction would be 2.13 hours per year, the target would not be reached until 2038. The medium scenario implies waiting until 2043. And the most pessimistic delays the arrival of the 37.5-hour workweek until 2056, 31 years from now. "Only Generation Alpha, that is, the children of millennials and some Generation Z parents, would enjoy it," said Òscar Riu, secretary of union policy for UGT in Catalonia.
These predictions have been made taking into account the average, but there are collective bargaining agreements that have much longer annual working hours. For these sectors, the path to 37.5 hours would take another 80 years, between 2080 and 2150. Among the agreements that reach the maximum legal limit of 1,820 hours per year are those of supermarkets and self-service stores, and those of hospitality and tourism. "Even in agreements with a strong union presence, we are still struggling to move forward with reducing working hours because employers don't want to enter the debate. Employers, when they can and collective bargaining isn't strong enough, extend the working day," Riu criticized.
The unionist insisted that reducing working hours is a "necessary reform." "Businesses say people want to earn more, but this is cheating, because salaries have increased, but with inflation we've lost purchasing power," Riu added. In this regard, he again denounced that in recent years it has been difficult to make progress in negotiating expired collective agreements and that this blockage is recurring in cases such as the home care service.
Approval in Congress
Spanish Vice President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, sealed an agreement with the unions Last December, the Catalan parliamentary group proposed reducing the working day to 37.5 hours. Now, however, parliamentary balance must be overcome for the law to be processed in the Congress of Deputies. One of the main stumbling blocks is the position of Junts per Catalunya, which has been more opposed than in favor of passing the measure. "We tell the Catalan parliamentary groups to stand with the citizens. We hope that Junts will stand with the majority of the population, and not just a small portion," Riu said.