Díaz signs the agreement with CCOO and UGT to reduce the working day in 2025: "It is a moment of historic height"

Unions do not rule out that the measure is blocked in Congress and invite CEOE to “continue talking” about the reduction

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The second vice president of the Government and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, signed this Friday with the general secretaries of CCOO and UGT, Unai Sordo and Pepe Álvarez, respectively, the agreement to reduce the working day to 37.5 hours per week , without salary reduction, which will come into force before the end of 2025, as was initialed in the investiture agreement, according to the minister.

At the signing ceremony, held at the Ministry of Labor, Díaz highlighted that this “is a moment of historic height” and stressed that this reduction in working time will directly affect 12 million workers who have a day longer than 37.5 hours, also for part-time workers, who “will have their rights and salaries increased.”

“It is not just another agreement, it is a civilizational advance that makes our country progress (…) Today, once again, we write a new page in the book of the great labor achievements of our country and believe me, this is a great job achievement that will be studied in all the universities in the world,” he noted.

“We set out to fight against job insecurity in the last legislature and we have achieved it. They told us that it was impossible to reduce the working day and here we are, we are going to do it,” said Díaz, who stressed that measures like this deserve the It’s a shame to “break one’s face in politics.”

The second vice president has also stressed that with this agreement “a debt is settled” with the workers, because “working less cannot only be a prerogative of the people in banking, consultancies, the three million public employees or big companies.”

“It is over in this country that in terms of working hours we have first and second-class workers,” said Díaz, who highlighted that this will be a right that reaches supermarket cashiers, shop assistants, and care workers. or to domestic workers, waiters and cleaning people, jobs that are mostly female and occupied by young people.

Díaz has assured that the norm will go out for public consultation this Friday “so that it is approved as soon as possible in Congress and the Senate”, so that “before the end of the year 2025, those who have a 40-hour day will earn half an hour of life more up to date”.

Along with the reduction in working hours without a salary cut, this working time reform will also contemplate the right to digital disconnection for workers and the improvement of time registration.

TELEMATIC SCHEDULE REGISTRATION

Regarding this last point, Díaz explained that a telematic time record will be established, which can be accessed remotely by the Labor Inspection, to guarantee that the established days are met.

“It will be a digital and reliable workday record to guarantee transparency, prevent abuses and the Labor Inspection will directly know in real time what workday the workers do,” said the minister.

The agreement contemplates individualized sanctions for companies that fail to comply with the stipulated day. “Before it was a single sanction by the company, quite cheap, by the way, because now it will be for each affected worker,” Díaz proclaimed.

THE AGREEMENT ARRIVES AFTER 11 MONTHS OF NEGOTIATIONS

With this agreement, a negotiation that began 11 months ago and that has gone through different phases (unions with employers, tripartite negotiation and in recent weeks only between the Government and the unions) and in which CEOE finally and Cepyme will not be there.

Although the Spanish employers’ association has not joined the agreement, Minister Díaz thanked the CEOE for taking part in the negotiations, which she acknowledged were “tedious”, as well as their interruptions. “It has not been an easy agreement,” he stressed.

The Minister of Labor has claimed that “two out of every three Spaniards want to reduce the working day, no matter who they vote for” and has assured that “reducing the working day is not an economic measure as some think, it is about building a better country.”

“The true purpose is for people to live better, less stressed. Living better cannot be a luxury, it has to be a right,” he claimed.

UNIONS WILL MOBILIZE IF THE RULE IS ALTERED IN CONGRESS

For his part, the general secretary of CCOO, Unai Sordo, has indicated that they do not rule out mobilizations if the measure undergoes regressive modifications for workers during its parliamentary processing, for which he has assured that the union organizations will monitor the development of the norm.

“We are aware that the CEOE is going to put pressure,” stressed Sordo, who has indicated that they do not rule out the measure being blocked in the Congress of Deputies, for which he has indicated that they will continue meeting with the political groups to clarify their position on the cutout.

Along these lines, the general secretary of UGT, Pepe Álvarez, has indicated that in January these meetings will be resumed with the groups represented in Congress and that they will ask for “rigorous” arguments.

“We are hearing such a number of arguments without any type of rigor that either there is significant ignorance in relation to the labor relations system in our country regarding the working day or there is very bad faith and an attempt to confuse citizens,” he warned. .

The union leaders have regretted that the CEOE and Cepyme have not joined the agreement to finally reduce the working day, because “a tripartite agreement is better”, but Sordo has recalled that one cannot “give the right of veto to anyone” and the employers were “blocking” the negotiations.

However, Álvarez has left the door open for CEOE to “continue talking” about reducing the working day because “today we are not closing anything” but rather “a process is being opened.” “We are aware that it will be a complex process, based on a text that is fundamental for us, we can and must speak to generate a very large majority so that the Chamber reflects what society reflects,” he stressed.

Likewise, Álvarez has stressed that for UGT the 37.5 hour work week is just “a stop” because the union wants to reach a work day of “32 hours a week, 4 days a week.”

Sordo and Álvarez have defended that there is productivity to reduce the working day and have stressed that time registration is a “totally necessary” and possible measure to be able to comply with the reduction in working time.