The Government delegate in Cantabria, Eugenia Gómez de Diego, highlighted on Wednesday that 149,000 workers in the region will benefit from the reduction in working hours promoted by the Government of Spain, following the approval of the bill that sets the maximum working time for 2025 at 37.5 hours per week.
"It will represent an historic advance in labor rights that will improve the conciliation and quality of life of thousands of families, without entailing a loss of purchasing power." In a statement, Gómez de Diego stressed that this is the first reduction in the maximum legal working day in Spain in 40 years, since 1983, and has assured that the measure responds to the commitment of the Government of Spain to "a fairer and more productive labor market".
"Citizens demand better working conditions and the Government of Pedro Sánchez is responding with concrete measures that reinforce workers' rights," he said.
Thus, he recalled that this measure is in addition to other labor advances promoted by the Government of Spain, such as the Labor Reform, which has led in Cantabria to the creation of more than 47,000 indefinite contracts, 188% more than before its approval; the increase of the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI) by 54%, which benefits about 24,500 workers in the region, and the creation of more than 17,000 new jobs in Cantabria. "They are courageous policies that are yielding results and that have allowed us to improve job stability and the quality of employment in our country and in our region," he said.
In this regard, Gómez de Diego has trusted that "the right will not turn its back on the workers, as it already did with the labor reform, the rise of the SMI or the revaluation of pensions". "The People's Party and the far-right opposed each and every one of these improvements, claiming that they would bring unemployment and ruin, and reality has shown the opposite: more jobs, more stability and more rights," he said.
Services, hospitality and commerce
According to the estimates of Labor, in Spain the reform will benefit about 12.5 million workers and the groups most benefited by the reduction of working hours will be those workers not covered by collective agreements, who currently may be subjected to working hours similar to those of more than forty years ago, with special incidence in sectors such as the hospitality industry, commerce, manufacturing industry or services.
For those workers who today perform 40 weeks, this reduction applied in a linear way would be equivalent to half an hour less work from Monday to Friday. If fewer than 40 hours are already worked, the reduction will be proportional and if the agreed time is already 37.5 hours or less, the change will not affect. The hours above the 37.5 hours that workers make from the entry into force of the new maximum working day will be considered extraordinary.
The Government will open a Social Dialogue Table to assess the impact of the reduction in working hours undertaken by the new standard and to continue moving forward in the matter of working hours. And the negotiating commissions of the collective agreements will have until December 31, 2025 to make the necessary adaptations to ensure compliance with the provisions of the norm, in particular, the provisions regarding the maximum duration of the ordinary day.