Congress rejects reducing workweek to 37.5 hours

The Spanish Congress rejected on Wednesday a government proposal to reduce the working week from 40 hours to 37.5 hours. Right-wing parties, including Catalan pro-independence Junts, Spanish conservative People's Party, and Spanish right-wing Vox, fully amended the bill.

With the vote against the proposal, the law now needs to be changed by the Spanish government before it returns to the chamber. The People's Party, Vox, and Junts have 178 seats out of 350, meaning that the three parties surpass the 175 seats in the chamber.

The Spanish labor ministry's proposal, submitted by Sumar leader Yolanda Díaz, would reduce the workweek from 40 hours to 37.5 hours. If it had been approved in Congress on Wednesday, the bill would have had to continue its parliamentary procedure before returning to the chamber for a vote. Then, it would have be voted on in the Senate, Spain's upper chamber. If there were no amendments, King Felipe VI would green-light it and publish it in the Official Gazette before it came into force.

With the expectation of the bill not to continue its parliamentary procedure, on Wednesday morning, Díaz accused the "three right-wing parties of voting to attack supermarket cashiers, store workers, and those who work in the hospitality industry." 

Díaz said because for her, the "proposal has already the support from workers," and that the vote against it will "chase" these right-wing parties.

"Mr Feijóo (People's Party leader), Mr Abascal (Vox's), and Ms Noguera (Junts) will have to face their voters when they are making a coffee, going on the metro, taxi, or plane," she said.

The workweek reduction is part of the coalition deal between the Socialists and left-wing coalition Sumar, and has the support of the labor unions. Meanwhile, business associations have opposed the measure.

Catalan left-wing and pro-independence Esquerra Republicana party has said it is "incomprehensible and shameful" that Junts votes against the bill and follows the same guidelines as the right-wing PP and Vox.

"What we are seeing today, is a test of what a government led by Feijóo and Abascal could look like, " Díaz said.

Spokesperson Gabriel Rufián said that "my humble responsibility is to say that 'he who pays the piper calls the tune,' and those who are paying PP and Vox to vote against it, are also paying Junts."

"We are just talking about reducing the workload by 30 minutes," Rufián told journalists on Wednesday in Congress.

Junts has expressed concerns over safeguarding businesses and the self-employed as for Míriam Nogueras, "defending small- and medium-sized businesses, the self-employed, and workers is good, but this law puts a lot of jobs at risk and we will not participate in that," she said.

During the congress session, Junts MP Josep Maria Cervera told Díaz that "since the first moment, we have been open to talk about improving the low productivity, frozen to two-decade levels, and how to reduce the high laboral absenteeism." The political party said that the proposal is just a "personal proposal" of the minister to guarantee her "political survival."

Josep Lluis Sánchez Llibre, president of the Catalan Foment employers' association, said that the "imposition of this kind would probably be the most serious mistake that a Spanish government has made since the return to democracy."

The agreement would have benefited more than two million workers in Catalonia who currently work more than 37.5 hours, but instead, the standard will remain, for now, at 40 hours.