Alex Trelinski
SPAIN’S Congress will decide whether the working week will be reduced to 37.5 hours after the Council of Ministers approved the measure on Tuesday.
The problem for the PSOE-Sumar government coalition is that it needs the backing of smaller parties to get the law passed.
The Ministry of Labour says the 2.5 hour reduction would benefit 12.5 million full-time and part-time private sector workers and is expected to improve productivity and reduce absenteeism.
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Labour Minister, Yolanda Diaz, said: “We are modernising the world of labour and helping people to be a little happier.”
The measure, which already applies to civil servants and some other sectors, would mainly affect retail, manufacturing, hospitality, and construction, Díaz added.
The main opposition conservative Partido Popular has already said it would vote against the bill.
Meanwhile, the Catalan nationalist party Junts, which has backed the Pedro Sanchez government expressed concern over what it said would be negative consequences for small companies and the self-employed under a shorter working week.
“We find ourselves with the door closed to the possibility of negotiating, even if it was a comma, of this text,” said Miriam Nogeuras, the Junts spokesperson in Congress.
The bill was put forward by the Sumar party- of which Yolanda Diaz is the leader.
She took a different tone on Tuesday, saying: “All the room for negotiation is absolutely possible.”
Analysts believe Diaz will offer concessions over the self-employed to get Junts on board.
