They rise from the fight between Labor and the Economy over the reduction of working hours. Yolanda Díaz has harshly criticized her fellow Executive Carlos Body for “opposing” the agreement that the Ministry of Labor has reached with the unions to contract the ordinary working day to 37 and a half hours this year, as promised by PSOE and Sumar in their agreement. Government. The second vice president has accused the Ministry of Economy of interference in Labor powers, has claimed the importance of complying with the Government agreement and has said that refusing to reduce the working day by half an hour a day is “almost like a bad person.”
The disagreement between Economy and Labor regarding the reduction of working hours following the signing of the agreement between Díaz’s ministry and the unions. The department led by the Corps defends giving more time to companies to adapt, even if this means failing to comply with the Government agreement. Which, on the other hand, has already been diluted by skipping the promised intermediate step of 38 and a half hours in 2024. There is also debate about how to impact the reduction on part-time, which according to the union and Labor agreement will translate into a proportional increase salary if the same hours are maintained.
“I am once again the only one whose powers are invaded. Imagine that I now said what I think about the banking practices that are authorized by the Ministry of Economy, something that I do not do,” Díaz commented this Friday. In the same conversation he said that “he cannot understand” that “a socialist minister opposes the reduction of the working day.” “In the congress of the Socialist Party, the reduction of the working day has been proposed, not to 37 and a half hours as the Government agreement says, but as they say in their political theses to 36 hours. And now they are rejecting the reduction of working hours,” he added.
Díaz recalled that the negotiation with unions and employers lasted 11 months and has claimed the aid offered to businessmen to participate in the agreement: “I cannot understand that today a socialist minister opposes an agreement with the unions. It seems very serious to me. To a social dialogue agreement. It has never happened.” In reality, this scenario does occur in another, much less media-friendly policy: another Labor agreement and the unions without the employers, was presented more than a year and a half ago and still has not been approved.
“What the Minister of Economy has said is that he wants to change the agreement with the unions and this is very serious and is not going to happen, I already told you. I know very well that the Socialist Party is currently opposed to reducing the working day. We are talking about reducing the working day by half an hour a day, it is almost like being a bad person. Tell the working people of our country today that you refuse to reduce the working day by half an hour a day,” Díaz added, to which the presenter asked if she classified the minister as a bad person. Díaz has not denied it, but he has not elaborated on the term either.
“There is a social dialogue agreement that is sacred. What the socialist minister has to choose is which side he is on, if he is with the workers of this country who ask to live a little better. Or if he is on the side of the bosses. There are only two actors who today in Spain are against the reduction of working hours, which is the extreme right and the Spanish employers’ association. Mr. Corps and the socialist minister have to decide which side they are on,” Díaz concluded.
This Thursday, Body was also interviewed. Regarding , the minister pointed out that it is a “joint” commitment of the Government and that the objective is to “reach an agreement as soon as possible” with the parliamentary groups to implement this measure. “We are aware of the difficulty, once again, of this negotiation,” said Body, who stated that when carrying out this measure we must take into account, on the one hand, “the parliamentary reality,” that is, the need to have sufficient support in Congress to reduce the working day, and, on the other, “”.
