The Spanish government is deeply split over a proposal to shorten the work week to four days to fight high unemployment sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The measure is being pushed by far-left party Podemos, the junior partner in Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government that has ruled the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy since January.
Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Pablo Iglesias, leader of Podemos, earlier this month said that the Spanish Ministry of Labor, Migrations and Social Security was looking into reducing work hours, adding that this “could without a doubt favor the creation of employment.”
Iglesias was responding during an interview to a proposal by a far-left lawmaker that called for the work week to be reduced to 32 hours from the current 40 hours.
“Work time requires a new concept which dares to challenge, as we do, the laws and customs of the working world,” Spanish Minister of Labor, Migrations and Social Security Yolanda Diaz, also from Podemos, wrote on Twitter.
The proposal comes as the New Zealand branch of Unilever earlier this month began a trial of a four-day work week for its staff in the country.
Germany’s powerful IG Metall union has also floated the idea.
In Spain, such ideas have been met with reluctance from Sanchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, that leads the country’s first coalition government since its return to democracy in the late 1970s.
Spanish Minister of Finance Maria Jesus Montero said that the government “must not lose focus” on its main priority, which is “to return to the growth rates which we had at the start of the pandemic.”
Spain’s heavily tourism-dependent economy had consistently outperformed much of Europe since it emerged from a five-year slump in 2013.
However, the IMF sees the country’s GDP slumping by 12.8 percent this year, in what would make it the hardest-hit nation among the world’s advanced economies.
“I don’t think this issue is a priority for Spain, given the current levels of productivity and competitiveness,” Spanish Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration Jose Luis Escriva said, referring to productivity levels well below the European average, partially due to the large proportion of small businesses.
“I don’t think there is room for that,” Escriva added.
Spain’s second-largest union confederation, the General Union of Workers (UGT), which is close to Sanchez’s party, has long called for a four-day work week, with a fifth day dedicated to professional development.
“With this, we will gain competitiveness, quality of life and employment,” UGT general secretary Pepe Alvarez said.
Spain’s largest union, the Workers’ Commissions, also backs the four-day work week, but says that it prefers to focus on raising the minimum wage and reforming Spain’s labor code in its talks with the government and businesses.
The proposal for a shorter work week has irritated employers.
“With all that we are dealing with, it’s a pipe dream,” tweeted Lorenzo Amor, an influential business lobbyist.
Bank of Spain Governor Pablo Hernandez de Cos warned that the measures “need a very rigorous analysis.”
“If someone works for four days instead of five, what happens to their salary?” he asked, adding that the effect a shorter work week would have on job creation hinges on the effect of the measure on labor costs.
Diaz dmitted that the proposal, and the way it was made, was too “rigid” and “ineffective for certain sectors.”
“The key question is to move toward greater internal flexibility within companies, and above all to allow each employee to adapt their own working times,” she added.
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