The Spanish Government has approved Sumar's motion to promote reducing the working week to 38.5 hours this year without pay cuts, with the only Vox voting against it and the PP and Junts abstaining.
This is the first initiative on reducing working hours that the Lower House has debated and voted on after PSOE and Sumar included it in their government agreement. Specifically, the approved proposal urges the Government to open "as a matter of urgency" a process of social dialogue that culminates in amending the Workers' Statute, as well as the relevant provisions, to incorporate a progressive reduction of the working week, starting by setting a cap of 38.5 effective hours in 2024.
However, the approved proposal is the second initiative Sumar has registered in Congress on this issue in just over two months. The one backed this Thursday is less demanding than the one presented in December 2023, when the Government was urged to enforce the reduction without requesting social dialogue and capping it at 37.5 hours a week, opening the door to a pact with the social partners to reduce it to 32 hours.
Congress' backing for the motion coincides with negotiations between the Ministry of Labour and the social partners to digitalise the working hours record so that it can no longer be recorded on paper and the Labour Inspectorate can have remote access to it to ensure that the reduced working hours are complied with.
More than 40 years without dropping below 40 hours
In the motion's text, it is recalled that it has been more than 104 years since the maximum working day was reduced to less than eight hours a day and more than 40 years since the 40-hour working week threshold was altered, despite the "very different economic, labour and social conditions".
Sumar believes that "freezing" the maximum working week places Spain "far from a correct application of Article 24 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights". Yolanda Díaz's group points out that more than 10.5 million salaried people in the private sector work more than 37.5 hours a week on average.
According to the confederal group, the reasons justifying reducing the working day include an equal distribution of care tasks, a better work-life balance, reduced exposure to occupational hazards, better physical and mental health conditions, a positive environmental impact and more time for training, leisure or social participation.
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