The second vice president of the Government, Yolanda Díaz, and the Minister of Economy, Carlos Body, maintain their clash over the reduction of the working day. This Friday, the head of Labor showed her anger after the statements of her cabinet colleague in which she maintains her position to delay this measure until next year. “I do not understand that a socialist minister opposes the reduction of the working day,” Díaz reproached him.
In an interview on Spanish National Radio, the leader of Sumar in the Government has complained about the statements of Body this week on the Cadena. The minister, in line with what he has been expressing in public for weeks, argued that the measure does not have enough support to move forward this year. Although he also raised technical observations by asking for a “balanced text”, aware of the “very important weight” of SMEs and also the “different casuistry of sectors and workers.”
Sources from the Ministry of Economy affirm that “the reduction of the working day to 37 and a half hours is a priority for Minister Corps.” “It is a commitment of the Government and it will be fulfilled,” insist these voices, who ask “to work to make it a reality as soon as possible, taking into account the parliamentary reality and the success of past reforms, such as the labor reform, ambitious in their objective and balanced in its design.”
Body’s arguments mean that the second vice president is opposing the agreement reached between her ministry and the unions in social dialogue, which today she has considered “sacred.” “Neither [Nadia] Calviño dared to do so much,” Díaz said about the predecessor of Body in Economy. Although the objections that he has made in public are somewhat ambiguous, the vice president explained in the interview that for days they have had a written paper on the table with the majority partner’s proposals, as elDiario.es announced a few days ago. In that text, according to the Labor version, the Economy is formally proposing to delay the entry into force of the measure until next year and, therefore, breach the coalition agreement signed between PSOE and Sumar for the legislature.
Specifically, in Economy they propose that the application could be delayed beyond 2025, for example in the cases of collective agreements already signed, until the end of their validity, as the employers claimed, negotiation sources told this newspaper, which It could delay the reduction of working hours for several more years. “We must continue to support an economic policy that works and that guarantees the sustainability of our achievements in economic and social matters. This 2025 has begun as 2024 ended, with excellent data on the evolution of the labor market,” official sources from the Ministry indicated this Friday after Díaz’s statements. “For the Government and the Minister of Economy, reducing the working day is the next achievement,” they insist.
The Minister of Social Security, Inclusion and Migration, Elma Saiz, also left a message this morning. Asked about the reduction in working hours in an interview on TVE, Saiz pointed out that, despite not being a negotiation that falls within the competence of her department, for her “social dialogue is a fundamental tool.” “It’s my modus operandi,” he said, referring to the pension agreement reached with the employers and the unions. A consensus that Labor has not achieved with businessmen. “With the utmost respect, we will see how it also develops in the Ministry of Labor in the coming weeks,” he conceded, before insisting on the idea that the socialist part of the Executive has been repeating: “The reforms have to be ambitious and balanced. , without forgetting the parliamentary reality.”
But on the other hand, Sumar and PSOE also clash over how the reduction in working hours affects part-time contracts. According to elDiario.es, in Economy the claim of Labor that the reduction of the maximum hours implies a salary increase for people hired part-time is not convincing.
“What Minister Corps is saying and has put it in writing is first that he positions himself on the side of the employers and wants to delay the entry into force and not comply with the agreement and second […] that the element of partiality be eliminated from that agreement, that is, hitting Spanish workers,” said the second vice president in the interview on RNE. “I have in writing what the PSOE wants: to attack the rights of women in our country. To question partiality in Spain today is to hit working women. “That women who are shop assistants, stockers, who work in the hospitality industry… cannot have the same rights that other workers have,” it has resulted.
Díaz believes that the reluctance shown by the minister about this reform is “clumsiness”, since, as he has said, this measure is “majority” among the electorate. “Three out of four Spaniards are in favor, no matter which party they vote for,” he explained. “What the socialist minister has to choose is which side he is on, if he is with the workers who want to live a little better or if he is with the employers,” he said, to remember that in the parliamentary arc only the extreme right is in against this measure.
“I cannot understand that today a socialist minister opposes an agreement with the unions. It has never happened. What the minister said yesterday is that he wants to change the agreement with the unions. I know well that the PSOE opposes the reduction of working hours. Our country needs good news, productivity grows above 2%. We are talking about reducing the working day by half an hour a day, it is almost a bad person to tell workers no to reducing the working day by half an hour a day,” insisted the leader of Sumar in the Government, visibly angry.
Source: www.eldiario.es
