The vice president and candidate of Sumar for the presidency, Yolanda Díaz, launched yesterday the proposal to resume the reduction of the working day, interrupted thirty years ago, to reach 37.5 hours per week this year, and in the medium term 32 hours weekly. Díaz, in a video broadcast on social networks, stressed that this reduction does not have to lead to lower wages and stressed that today "in Spain we work an average of 300 hours more per year than in Germany and 150 hours more than in France ”.
Díaz assured that the process will be channeled through social dialogue, that is, with the help of unions and employers, and recalled that historically increases in productivity have been accompanied by reductions in working hours, without this involving fraud for employers or workers.
According to the press release issued by Sumar, "in 2024 a maximum working day of 37.5 hours will be established by law and a process of social dialogue will be opened to continue reducing the working day to 32 hours a week."
With this measure, Sumar intends to improve "the compatibility of working time with the rest of the uses of time, from a balanced distribution of care and self-care tasks to time devoted to training, leisure or social participation". Díaz affirms in his video that "time is the most valuable thing for those of us who do not have large properties or important last names."
From Sumar, one of the issues that Díaz already occupied during the last legislature is affected, "better control overtime and compensate them with free time, eliminate variable hours without control and regulate the hours of public services." Díaz also intends to implement "more flexible time management throughout people's professional careers, taking into account the different needs that occur throughout the life cycle, including the relief contract."
The candidate underlines that the 20th century started with 2,800 hours worked per year and closed with 1,700. The current 8-hour day was established in 1919, after the strike at La Canadiense, in Barcelona, although then the week included 6 working days, so it was a 48-hour work week, and not 40 hours as it is. since 1992.
