The Ministry of Labour proposes to provide a bonus for permanent employment created by SMEs due to the reduction of the working day

CEOE says the measure deepens the Government’s “interventionism” in labour relations and CCOO and UGT maintain their mobilisations

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The Secretary of State for Employment, Joaquín Pérez Rey, announced on Monday that he has proposed to social agents the implementation of a support plan for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to help them reduce their working hours, with the inclusion of bonuses for new permanent jobs that are generated as a result of the application of this measure.

“These bonuses must be directed at those jobs, those employment contracts, that are made to fill the time left free by staff when working hours are reduced,” stressed Pérez Rey, who, in any case, pointed out that it is not a closed issue and that the Ministry of Labour is willing to analyse other avenues.

However, for Pérez Rey, the way proposed by the Ministry of Labour to help SMEs reduce their working hours is to provide subsidies for new permanent contracts that these companies make to cover the time gaps that arise from the reduction in working hours.

Thus, “the reduction of working hours will not only be an element that will allow us to increase productivity and the well-being of workers and employers, but it will also allow us to create jobs,” said Pérez Rey after resuming negotiations with CCOO, UGT, CEOE and Cepyme on Monday for the reduction of working hours.

The aim of this plan, explained Pérez Rey, is to ensure that the reduction of working hours to 37.5 hours per week reaches all SMEs, which are where most of the employment in Spain is concentrated and which account for 90% of the business fabric.

“Time cannot be just a privilege of some sectors, but working less while maintaining the same salary must be a right of the entire productive system, including small businesses. We have almost one and a half million companies that have less than ten workers and that employ almost three and a half million workers. We want these small companies to incorporate the reduction of working hours and, therefore, their workers have the right to work less and maintain their salary,” she said.

The Secretary of State explained that this support plan, called ‘Pyme 375’, is open to contributions from social agents and will provide entrepreneurs with specialized training to help them complete this transition to 37.5 hours a week and to enable them to correctly implement the new time record that the Ministry of Labor wants to promote.

“The guidance and employment centres that have been financed thanks to the deployment of European funds will advise, accompany and train entrepreneurs, small business owners, so that they have the capacity to reduce their working hours and can do so in the best possible way,” he said.

He also explained that technical guides will be launched, mainly by sector, to facilitate the transition of small businesses to reduced working hours.

“This plan to support small businesses, with bonuses, training, support and specialized advice and sector-specific technical guides, will be a decisive element in promoting the reduction to 37 and a half hours,” said Pérez Rey.

The Secretary of State also argued that not all the time freed up by the reduction in working hours will generate new jobs, as there will be companies that use more efficient production mechanisms to produce more with their current workforce, which will generate increases in productivity.

He also pointed out that the Ministry of Labour continues to propose that one of the elements on which the reduction of working hours could be based is the irregular distribution of working hours, as this could help some sectors to apply this measure. However, he made it clear that distributing working hours irregularly does not mean increasing them or doing overtime, but rather concentrating them on those moments when companies have a greater need for production.

THE NEGOTIATION PERIMETER IS CLOSED

The Secretary of State has stated that, with the proposal of the ‘Pyme 375’ plan, the scope of the negotiation of this social dialogue table is now complete, which includes, in addition to the reduction of the working day, the right to digital disconnection and the improvement of the time record to convert it into an electronic instrument, accessible to the Labour Inspectorate.

“The scope is closed, but it is open to new additions, not so much to new regulations, to new thematic blocks, but to the improvement of each of the blocks that we have been incorporating to the table throughout this time. Therefore, the scope is closed, but the negotiation is open,” he specified.

Pérez Rey has committed to drafting a document with the new proposal and hopes to reach an agreement with unions and employers as soon as possible. “Today there has been a very good atmosphere at the social dialogue table,” he said.

CEOE, AGAINST “INTERVENTIONISM” IN LABOR RELATIONS

Sources from the employers’ association CEOE, consulted by Europa Press, have indicated that they will analyse the Labour proposal when they have it in writing, although, a priori, they consider that it “deepens the interventionism of labour relations and the disdain for collective bargaining”.

The organisation headed by Antonio Garamendi has criticised the intention that the State Public Employment Service (SEPE) should become an advisor to SMEs on the reduction of working hours “when it is not capable of reintegrating even 3% of the country’s unemployed into the labour market, as if there were not already offices, consultancies and companies qualified to do so”.

On the other hand, CEOE describes the plan to help SMEs proposed by the Ministry of Labour as “absolutely imprecise” and considers that, in itself, “it implies the recognition that its continuous announcements are slowing down job creation.”

UNIONS MAINTAIN MOBILIZATIONS

For their part, UGT and CCOO have stated that they will continue their protests starting this September to demand a reduction in working hours because the employers’ association continues to position itself “against” increasing working hours to 37.5 hours per week.

“We are going to increase the mobilizations, we are going to increase the tension to achieve something that seems fair to us, but which is also something that Spanish society demands,” said the deputy general secretary of Trade Union Policy of UGT, Fernando Luján.

The Secretary of Studies and Trade Union Training of CCOO, Carlos Gutiérrez, has stated that CEOE and Cepyme continue to show a “total lack of definition.” “We are more or less in the same position that we were in in July,” denounced Gutiérrez, who has asserted that this situation “greatly worries” CCOO.

Luján has shared this concern and has asked the employers’ association, as well as the political parties, to speak out, since time “is running out.”

“We, and I include the Government in this, are taking all steps to ensure that employers join the request of Spanish society to reduce working hours,” said Luján.

He said that the ‘Pyme 375′ plan proposed by the Government on Monday at the social dialogue table is responding to CEOE’s complaint that the reduction in working hours would greatly affect small businesses. “We are waiting for the reaction from the employers’ association,” he added.

In this regard, CCOO believes that the next meeting to reduce working hours will be “important” because there will be a document explaining the Labour proposal and the employers’ association will have to take a position.