Everything in the legislature’s main labor negotiation revolves around time. The reduction of working hours is a promise of PSOE and Sumar to the citizens, cutting the ordinary working hours of . And for this deadline to be met, the Ministry of Labor insists, the processing of the measure must be activated as soon as possible: it must go through the Council of Ministers so that it reaches Parliament as soon as possible where it will be subjected to a litmus test in the face of the difficulties. of the Executive to approve any norm. According to government sources, the Economy is delaying the inclusion of this issue in the Government Delegated Commission for Economic Affairs (CDGAE), the body where the issues that reach the Council of Ministers ready to be approved are decided and examined. This maneuver is preventing the text for the reduction of the working day agreed between Labor and the unions from being approved with the speed required by Yolanda Díaz’s department and as contained in the Government agreement between both political forces. The same sources indicate that the Department of Economy, headed by Carlos Body, has blocked its inclusion in the CDGAE on January 13, which prevents it from reaching the next Council of Ministers.
This is further evidence of the disagreement between the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Labor over the legislature’s star measure, the one that made the main headlines when the Government agreement was announced. The two departments say they are there, but not how to get there. The ministry led by Carlos Cuerpo is committed to a more gradual deployment, contrary to what Díaz defends, who asks for respect for the literal nature of the agreement reached with the unions (after 11 months of negotiations with the employers, who finally rejected this measure) and to the Government pact. Which, on the other hand, has already been slightly diluted, since the intermediate step of 38 and a half hours in 2024 has not been applied.
The delay in passing the measure through the CDGAE, the same sources point out, complicates the text reaching the Council of Ministers in January or even February. As Díaz has been highlighting for months, the reduction in working hours will be processed as a draft law via emergency.
Despite the manifest and public disagreement between Economy and Labor on the content of the text, also on issues such as the application to part-time, Díaz’s ministry presented the agreement with the centrals. The head of Labor defends that the text agreed with the unions is “sacred” and that this negotiation is her responsibility, although when presenting the text there was still no consensus between the different economic sensitivities of the coalition.
Last week the dissent between Economy and Labor finished exploding, after statements by Díaz that the socialist part of the Government has taken as a personal attack. “You are going to allow me, we are talking about reducing the working day by half an hour a day. It’s almost like being a bad person to tell the working people of our country today that you refuse to reduce your working day by half an hour a day,” Díaz added. That last comment, the use of the concept “bad person,” has drawn special attention.
In the Ministry of Economy they have been insisting that the intention to reduce working hours is a shared project and that the Corps is completely committed to this objective. “We must continue to combine growth with the conquest and reinforcement of rights. For the Government and for the Minister of Economy, the reduction of the working day is the next achievement,” defends the department headed by Corps.
Díaz’s department defends the importance of activating the process now so that the cut applies in 2025, taking into account the complicated parliamentary procedure that lies ahead. Last week Díaz spoke again with the leader of Junts, Carles Puigdemont, to convince him to support the reduction of working hours. In this regard, Corps also gave its opinion, alluding to the “parliamentary reality.” That is to say, it is difficult for the approach agreed upon with the unions and rejected by the employers to receive the support of the right-wing parties, which have a majority in Congress. But in response to this complaint, Labor remembers that in the legislature it can change the text, with the employers’ refusal as one of the main arguments, among others. And that parliamentary rejection has not been an excuse for not approving other projects in the Council of Ministers, pending changes in retrospect to prosper in Congress.
