By Belén Carreño
MADRID (Reuters) – Commerce unions will lead protests throughout Spain on Thursday in an effort to drive 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 searching for to influence 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 enhance productiveness.
The European Union should shut the productiveness hole between its member states to maintain tempo with financial rivals america and China, former European Central Financial institution chief Mario Draghi mentioned in a report this month produced for the European Fee.
To safe the backing of employers, the federal government has provided a hiring bonus for small companies with lower than 10 staff to offset the discount in working hours whereas sustaining the identical degree of service, in line with a supply concerned within the negotiations.
Madrid can approve the discount with out consensus and a senior authorities supply mentioned they may accomplish that earlier than the top of 2024.
The supply calculates the working week on an annual foundation, so staff in sectors the place it’s troublesome to adapt shifts similar to hospitality can accrue hours that may later be compensated for within the type of holidays.
Spaniards work extra hours than most Europeans. In accordance with Eurostat, the common 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 mentioned that decreasing working hours will enhance productiveness, an space the place Spain has historically lagged behind its European counterparts.
Enterprise homeowners worry the proposal will imply staff work fewer hours for a similar pay as earlier than.
The influence of comparable measures in different nations is unclear.
France in 2000 launched a 35-hour work week anticipating it will create a whole lot of 1000’s of jobs. However knowledge exhibits a rise in the price of labour, making French staff dearer in relative phrases and firms much less aggressive.