By Belen Carreno
MADRID (Reuters) – Trade unions will lead protests across Spain on Thursday in an effort to force a deal between the government and business on cutting working hours amid pushback from employers concerned about rising costs.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists are trying to persuade businesses to agree to a plan to cut the working week from 40 to 2.5 hours, which they say will boost productivity.
The European Union must close the productivity gap between its member states to keep pace with economic rivals the United States and China, former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi said in a report prepared this month for the European Commission.
To secure employer support, the government has offered a hiring bonus for small businesses with fewer than 10 employees to compensate for reduced working hours while maintaining the same level of service, according to a source involved in the negotiations.
Madrid can approve the reduction without consensus and a senior government source said that they will do so before the end of 2024.
The offer calculates the work week on an annual basis, so workers in sectors where it is difficult to adapt shifts, such as hospitality, can accumulate hours that they can then compensate for in the form of vacations.
Spaniards work longer hours than most Europeans. According to Eurostat, the average working week in Spain was 36.4 hours in 2023, compared to the European Union average of 36.1 hours.
The Minister of Labour, Yolanda Díaz, has assured that the reduction of the working day will increase productivity, an area in which Spain has traditionally lagged behind its European counterparts.
Business owners fear the proposal will mean employees will work fewer hours for the same pay as before.
The impact of similar measures in other countries is unclear.
In 2000, France introduced the 35-hour workweek in the hope of creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, but data shows rising labour costs, making French workers more expensive in relative terms and businesses less competitive.