‘We are beginning to recover the most valuable thing we have: time’, stressed the Minister of Labour and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, on the reduction of the 40-hour working week in force since 1983.
Yolanda Díaz with Pepe Álvarez and Unai Sordo at the signing of the agreement.Vice-president Yolanda Díaz and the general secretaries of UGT, Pepe Álvarez, and CCOO, Unai Sordo, after signing the agreement to reduce working hours.
The Second Vice-President of the Government and Minister of Labour and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, and the General Secretaries of CCOO, Unai Sordo, and UGT, Pepe Álvarez, have signed the agreement to reduce working hours to 37.5 hours a week in 2025 without a salary reduction.
The evolution of production over these decades requires new regulation, especially in some territories and sectors such as hotels and catering, commerce, agriculture or services, which currently maintain working weeks very close to the legal maximum foreseen more than forty years ago. It is a democratic duty to compensate and avoid unfair differences.
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Government and trade unions sign the reduction of the working week to 37.5 hours without wage reduction
The agreement therefore makes it possible to gain time in life and settle a historic debt ‘with those who have been the driving force of our economy: the women and men who have dedicated their effort and time to the development of the country without receiving in return a proportional improvement in their quality of life, and with the parents who have to juggle to see their children after work’, Díaz emphasised.
Adaptation of agreements
Current collective agreements will have until 31 December 2025 at the latest to adapt to the new 37.5-hour working week. Yolanda Díaz stressed the importance of an agreement on time, a vital issue: ‘It is a debate about life, about how we want to live in society. This agreement has the support of the majority of citizens and responds to a widely recognised social need. It doesn’t matter what people vote for. To support it, therefore, is to be on the side of working people, their families and a better future for all. Today we begin to recover the most valuable thing we have: time’.
Time recording
The company must have an objective, reliable and accessible digital daily record of the working day to ensure effective compliance with the working day. In addition, the register must be remotely accessible to the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate and workers’ representatives.
Penalties
In the event of failure to comply with the obligations regarding the recording of working hours, an infringement shall be considered for each worker concerned in the event of failure to record or falsification of data.
Digital disconnection
The text includes the inalienable right to digital disconnection outside working hours. Failure to attend to these communications may not have negative consequences for the worker, who has the right to privacy in the use of the digital devices made available to him or her by the company.