{"id":170090,"date":"2025-09-16T00:49:30","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T00:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/congress-rejected-the-proposal-to-shorten-the-workweek-and-instead-granted-companies-an-additional-2-8-million-hours-of-work-each-week\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T00:49:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T00:49:31","slug":"congress-rejected-the-proposal-to-shorten-the-workweek-and-instead-granted-companies-an-additional-2-8-million-hours-of-work-each-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/congress-rejected-the-proposal-to-shorten-the-workweek-and-instead-granted-companies-an-additional-2-8-million-hours-of-work-each-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress rejected the proposal to shorten the workweek and instead granted companies an additional 2.8 million hours of work each week."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Parliamentary Setback: The 37.5-Hour Workweek Initiative<\/h2>\n

The recent parliamentary failure regarding the Voting of the reduction of the workweek<\/a> to \u00a037.5 hours\u00a0 has proven to be a significant setback. Initially portrayed as a headline priority for the Legislative agreement, this motion faced unforeseen challenges during the parliamentary session and ultimately failed to pass.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the proposed reduction was not the only casualty; the \u00a0reform of the time registration system\u00a0 that was set to accompany the workweek reduction also collapsed. This reform aimed to address serious labor \u00a0exploitation\u00a0 issues by enhancing transparency through more robust tracking systems.<\/p>\n

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Reforming Under Pressure<\/h2>\n
The Ministry of Labor, led by \u00a0Yolanda D\u00edaz\u00a0, had planned an extensive reform backed by two pivotal components: a \u00a037.5-hour workweek\u00a0 and a mandatory \u00a0digital time registration system\u00a0. This dual approach would have significantly aided in eradicating \u00a0unpaid extra hours\u00a0. However, as the parliamentary hurdles became evident, the Ministry was forced to adapt and pivot toward a more limited strategy.<\/p>\n
As reductions in legislative support led to an inability to modify the \u00a0Baremo de Sanctions\u00a0, the Ministry quickly turned its focus to a new \u00a0decree law\u00a0 aimed at reforming time registration, which was a less extensive measure than originally intended. The revised approach necessitated \u00a0minimal changes\u00a0 to current regulations, which has raised concerns about its effectiveness in combating labor exploitation.<\/p>\n
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Key Changes in the Proposal<\/h2>\n
The current proposal for public consultation has noticeably diluted the initial legislative ambitions. \u00a0The new decree\u00a0 fails to include a mandatory and integrated \u00a0digital registration system\u00a0, leaving companies with flexible options for reporting work hours. \u00a0Sanctioning regimes\u00a0, which were considered essential in discouraging time registration fraud, are almost non-existent in the revised bill. The proposal now centers more on strengthening existing principles rather than introducing new enforcement mechanisms.<\/p>\n
D\u00edaz has stated that the existing system is “absolutely violative of community regulations,” and the \u00a0Court of Justice of the European Union has condemned Spain\u00a0 for its failures in this regard. Despite the government’s strong position, allies within the labor movement recognize the shortcomings of this latest proposal.<\/p>\n
Citing \u00a0Javier Pacheco\u00a0, secretary of trade union action for CCOO, they demand that the \u00a0language\u00a0 from initial social dialogue agreements be strictly adhered to, emphasizing the necessity for a revised and more stringent framework.<\/p>\n
Consultation and Prospects<\/h2>\n
The public consultation document outlines a framework where records must be kept by workers themselves, detailing \u00a0breaks\u00a0 and \u00a0availability\u00a0 times. It allows electronic records with verification mechanisms, but crucially it does not mandate this digital approach. Hence, companies could continue with inefficient manual methods, which undermines the aim of transparent reporting recently agreed upon at the European level.<\/p>\n
The proposal does, however, aim to include controls over modifications made to time records, ensuring that both Labor Inspection and worker representation have immediate access. Yet without a solid enforcement mechanism, concerns remain regarding its efficacy in addressing existing abuses in the system.<\/p>\n
Sanctions and Worker Rights<\/h2>\n
In terms of sanctions for companies violating the registration laws, the proposal did not introduce changes aimed at effectively discouraging non-compliance. The potential fines are capped at \u00a07,500 euros\u00a0, a figure that many believe is insufficient to deter violators, especially when compared to the initial proposal that suggested fines of up to \u00a010,000 euros per affected worker\u00a0.<\/p>\n
Highlighting the severe prevalence of unpaid labor in Spain, the latest data from the \u00a0EPA (Active Population Survey)\u00a0 indicates that more than \u00a07 million\u00a0 overtime hours go unreported each week, with \u00a02.8 million\u00a0 of those hours being unpaid. This alarming statistic demonstrates that the existing systems are not only flawed but also are failing the very workers they should protect.<\/p>\n
In summary, the reduction of the workweek and significant reforms in labor registration have hit substantial roadblocks. The failure to approve the proposed legislation reflects \u00a0not just a political setback\u00a0, but a missed opportunity to create a fairer and more transparent workplace environment for countless workers in Spain.<\/p>\n

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General News – 2<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Parliamentary Setback: The 37.5-Hour Workweek Initiative The recent parliamentary failure regarding the Voting of the reduction of the workweek to \u00a037.5 hours\u00a0 has proven to be a significant setback. Initially portrayed as a headline priority for the Legislative agreement, this motion faced unforeseen challenges during the parliamentary session and ultimately failed to pass. Unfortunately, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":170091,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36399],"tags":[5752,1723,1699,3239,801,679,1340,3249,6812,2114,319,27065],"class_list":["post-170090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-additional","tag-companies","tag-congress","tag-granted","tag-hours","tag-million","tag-proposal","tag-rejected","tag-shorten","tag-week","tag-work","tag-workweek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}