Spain: debate over four-day week reignited

Following comments from Spain’s deputy prime minister Pablo Iglesias, who announced that the possibility of reducing working time was already “being discussed with social partners”, labour minister Yolanda Diaz moved to calm the animation. “When this debate reaches the social dialogue negotiating table, as always we will deal with it. But this debate, which is very interesting, has not arrived at that stage yet,” she said, cautiously remedying the comments made by the deputy premier. The fact remains however that Mr Iglesias’ comments serve as a reminder that during the negotiations that preceded the approval of the 2021 budget, the government made a commitment to the small left-wing parties to open up the debate, with the aim of better distributing the workload and favouring both work-life balance and job creation, in a country with a very high level of structural unemployment. Prior to that, the issue of reducing working hours was included in the government programme agreed by the socialists of the PSOE and Podemos parties, which planned the drafting of a “law on the use of time and the rationalisation of working hours”. This plan for a legally shortened week of 32 hours – instead of the current 40-hour week – is one of the issues raised by the trade unions in relation to working time arrangements. The Spanish labour minister highlighted what has been achieved so far: the adoption of various decrees concerning the monitoring of working time, the regulation of telework and, in particular, the establishment of the right to disconnect (see article nº12135), as well as the obligation for companies to keep a time register (see dispatch nº11038), in order to avoid unpaid overtime and to help detect potential fraud in part-time employment. However, while the government is in principle receptive, it has so far not made any concrete progress in this area.