By Belén Carreño
MADRID (Reuters) – Commerce unions will lead protests throughout Spain on Thursday in an effort to power an settlement between the federal government and the enterprise sector over a discount in working hours amid pushback from employers involved a few rise in prices.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists are looking for to steer companies to purchase right into a plan to cut back the working week by 2.5 hours from 40 hours that they are saying will increase productiveness.
The European Union should shut the productiveness hole between its member states to maintain tempo with financial rivals the US and China, former European Central Financial institution chief Mario Draghi stated in a report this month produced for the European Fee.
To safe the backing of employers, the federal government has supplied a hiring bonus for small companies with lower than 10 workers to offset the discount in working hours whereas sustaining the identical degree of service, in accordance with a supply concerned within the negotiations.
Madrid can approve the discount with out consensus and a senior authorities supply stated they’ll accomplish that earlier than the tip of 2024.
The supply calculates the working week on an annual foundation, so staff in sectors the place it’s troublesome to adapt shifts comparable to hospitality can accrue hours that may later be compensated for within the type of holidays.
Spaniards work extra hours than most Europeans. In keeping with Eurostat, the typical working week in Spain was 36.4 hours in 2023, in comparison with the European Union common of 36.1 hours.
Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz has stated that lowering working hours will improve productiveness, an space the place Spain has historically lagged behind its European counterparts.
Enterprise house owners concern the proposal will imply workers work fewer hours for a similar pay as earlier than.
The affect of comparable measures in different nations is unclear.
France in 2000 launched a 35-hour work week anticipating it could create a whole bunch of 1000’s of jobs. However information reveals a rise in the price of labour, making French staff costlier in relative phrases and firms much less aggressive.
