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Malaga
Friday, 7 February 2025, 13:10
The Spanish cabinet approved on Tuesday this week a reduction in the standard working week for those in full-time employment in Spain from 40 hours to 37.5 hours.
Employers would be required to keep paying the same salaries however. An estimated 12 million workers would benefit. The reduction in the working week, which effectively shortens the working day by half an hour, has been a key demand of the junior and most left-of-centre partner in the coalition government, the Sumar group. Its leader, Yolanda Díaz, who is also deputy prime minister, has been pushing her PSOE Socialist party colleagues in government for them to approve the measure for some time.
The economics minister, Carlos Cuerpo, of the PSOE, has been known to be nervous about the move, as was his predecessor Nadia Calvino.
Now it has been approved by ministers, the process has begun to bring it before parliament for a vote by MPs, which Sumar's Díaz hopes will be before the end of this year.
The deputy PM argues that the move will increase productivity" by doing more in less time and "reduce absenteeism". However moves to stagger its impact for smaller companies could also be included. The trade unions are enthusiastic about the planned measure but business leaders are less keen. Head of Spanish employers' confederation CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, said last month, that the change "will put the viability of small and medium sized firms at risk and these are the heart of our economy". He added that a quarter of all collective bargaining agreements signed in 2024 had already been signed for a 37.5 hour week "without any need to impose it".
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