The first reactions to the reduction in working hours have arrived even before the precise letter of the agreement is known and are going in the expected direction. In favor of the unions, and against the employers.
In a statement, the CEOE expresses its rejection of the measures that have become known from the PSOE and Sumar agreement, because they will have a negative impact on the activity of companies and job creation. Furthermore, it criticizes the fact that they act "behind the backs of the social partners and with an evident interventionist desire and that it is an attack on the constitutional role of the social agents." The employers accept that new formulas for distributing working time can be explored but not as "a legal imposition", but through collective bargaining. They propose regulating the working day sector by sector and company by company, analyzing in each case whether there is sufficient productivity margin. If it is not carried out in this way, they warn, It would mean an increase in costs for companies.
For its part, Foment del Treball also opposes a "generalized and legal" reduction in working hours," and warns of the risks of the measure, which would entail "additional expenses for companies, the hiring of more people and more extraordinary hours. The principle they maintain is that "they are not against the reduction of working hours on principle, but rather the generalized reduction by law and uniform for all sectors," according to a statement from the Catalan employers' association.
On the other hand, the general secretary of CC.OO., Unai Sordo, has stated that they “welcome” this pact to reduce working hours and proposes using collective bargaining as the way to apply it in different areas and sectors. “It is good that the law reduces the annual working day and that then Collective Bargaining is the one who has to specify how it is done,” says Sordo, insisting that there is no single formula, be it the four-day working day in some cases and other procedures in others.
For the general secretary of CC.OO. This reduction in working hours is good in terms of generating employment and improving productivity, and in terms of sustainability when the days in which one has to go to work are reduced. Sordo has also warned against those who from now on "are going to launch another campaign about the arrival of seven other plagues from Egypt", as they did with the labor reform or the increase in the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI).
For his part, the general secretary of UGT, Pepe Álvarez, has positively assessed the measure to reduce the working day to 37.5 hours per week, but has stated that the union objective is that "this legislature should be the 35 weekly hours". He has also stated that "reducing working hours was a demand, a demand from the union organizations" and has considered it essential to start a process to reduce the maximum working time, which has not been touched for "40 years." A reference to the last change in the ordinary work day that was approved by the Government of Felipe González in 1983.
