CEOE ratifies its ‘no’ to the Government’s proposal to reduce working hours after meeting its Labor Commission

He affirms that they will continue to attend the social dialogue tables to continue negotiating the measure.

September 27 () –

The leadership of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE) has ratified its refusal to accept the current proposal that the Government has made to reduce the working day, after meeting this Friday its Labor Commission, but will continue at the social dialogue tables with the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy and the unions to negotiate the measure.

As sources from the employers’ association have explained to Europa Press, in the closed-door meeting of the employers’ association this Friday, the CEOE has decided to continue without joining the agreement that the Government has put on the table to implement the 40-hour day by law. current weekly hours to 37.5 hours by 2025, given that CEOE has not yet received the document that the Ministry of Labor promised to send them.

On September 9, the Ministry of Labor proposed to social agents during a meeting on the reduction of working hours the ‘SME 375’ plan, with which they sought to bring positions closer to the CEOE and to join the agreement to reduce working time. .

Specifically, the Secretary of State for Labor, who is leading the negotiations at this social dialogue table, proposed to CCOO, UGT, CEOE and Cepyme the implementation of this support plan for SMEs, called ‘SME 375’ , which includes bonuses for new permanent jobs that are generated as a result of the reduction in working hours.

These bonuses would be directed to those employment contracts made by SMEs to complete the time left free by staff when the working day is reduced.

The objective of this plan, according to Labor, is to ensure that the reduction of working hours to 37.5 hours per week reaches all SMEs and not only some “privileged” sectors, such as banking or telecommunications, since it is in SMEs where most of the employment in Spain is concentrated, accounting for 90% of the business fabric.

The proposed plan includes specialized training for companies to help them complete this transition towards 37.5 hours per week and so that they can correctly execute the new time registration that Labor wants to promote.

Labor continues to propose that one of the elements on which the reduction of working hours can pivot is the irregular distribution of working hours, as this could help some sectors to apply this measure. Of course, it has made it clear that irregularly distributing the working day does not mean increasing it or working overtime, but concentrating it on those moments when companies have a greater need for production.

The proposal for the ‘SME 375’ plan adds to the previous proposals on the right to digital disconnection and the improvement of the time record to turn it into an electronic instrument, accessible to the Labor Inspection.

GARAMENDI DENIES THAT THIS FRIDAY’S MEETING WAS EMERGENCY

This morning, the president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, denied that the meeting of the Labor Commission called this Friday was urgent, after the concentrations of CCOO and UGT last Thursday in front of the headquarters of the employers’ associations of different provinces. .

“We convene the CEOE Work Commission, whenever there is a table,” said the president of the employers’ association in an interview on Antena 3 reported by Europa Press.

Garamendi explained that whenever there is a meeting to reduce working hours, the CEOE calls a meeting to be “transparent” and explain what has been addressed in the negotiations.