Unai Sordo advocates that the four-day week is not the only formula to reduce the working day

The general secretary of the CCOO Trade Union Confederation, Unai Sordo. Photography: Diego Radamés – Europa Press.Diego Radames (Europa Press)

The reduction of the working day is one of the projects that the second vice president of the Government and acting Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, had to leave in the drawer, since she did not have time to carry out her promised Law on the use of work time. work that included an in-depth reform of working hours and the organization of the working day. Her intention, also included in Sumar’s electoral program, is that the working day be progressively reduced from the current 40 hours a week to 32 hours on an annual average and without a salary cut; This reduction has already begun in 2024 so that it would be fully in force on the horizon of 2032.

Díaz’s plans, thus presented, differ slightly from the pilot projects approved at the request of Más País —today integrated into Sumar— to achieve a four-day work week, and which were approved and launched in the previous legislature by the Ministry of Industry, since they were intended for industrial companies. Thus, in line with the proposals of the acting vice president, the general secretary of CC OO, Unai Sordo, asked this Tuesday in Bilbao “not to become obsessed with a single formula to talk about reducing working time”, in relation to the four-day work week already started in the Más País pilot projects, according to Europa Press.

As explained by the union leader, although in some sectors and companies this week of only four days could be a viable and desirable option, “in others it is not viable and other ways will have to be chosen, such as reducing the daily working day”.

At this point, Sordo has said that the total calculation of working time worries him as much as the distribution of the working day, because in many professions or positions, “as important as knowing how many hours are worked per week, is knowing how to decides the distribution of the working day. “It is worth little to work 37 or 39 hours if the time of entry or exit or digital disconnection is decided unilaterally by the company or the employer, always”, he pointed out.

Last April, the Government published in the BOE a call for aid for industrial companies that cut the working day without reducing wages. The budget for this project was 9.6 million euros, but, finally, the eligible expenses for the projects presented, by 41 companies, were limited to 2.83 million, 29% of the total, according to the Ministry of Industry.

Everything indicates that the debate on the reduction of the working day will be present in the next legislature and, before, perhaps in the possible conversations between the PSOE and Sumar to try to reach a government pact. In fact, Díaz already has the field work done to prepare his Law on the Use of Work Time, because in June he already received an exhaustive report from more than 60 experts in the field, who managed to gather a hundred proposals to make this reform of timetables in Spain.

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