THE Spain’s leftist government started today negotiations with the social partners for the reduction of working time from 40 to 37.5 hours per weekdespite the reservations expressed by employers’ organizations.

The measure, stipulated in the government agreement sealed in late October by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist Party and the radical left Sumar formation, affects about 12 million workers, according to the government.

“Reducing working hours does not only mean that we work less, but also that we work better,” Labor Minister Yolanda Diath, who is also head of Sumar, stressed on social media X before the start of the talks.

Spaniards “deserve a pace of work that leaves them time to live”, Diath added, recalling that the legal length of working time has not changed in Spain for “40 years”, despite a recorded increase in worker productivity.

The plan put on the negotiating table by the government specifically calls for reducing working hours in two phases, to 38.5 hours a week in 2024 and 37.5 hours in 2025. This must be done without loss of pay, according to the government.

The government’s plan has been welcomed by the two largest trade unions, the UGT and the Workers’ Committees (CCOO), but it has raised concerns among employers who are concerned about its financial viability in some sectors.

“Not all sectors are the same”, underlined during an economic meeting at the beginning of the week the president of the confederation CEOE, Antonio Garamedi, estimating that the discussions should take place “per sector”.

The official of the largest employers’ organization also criticized the lack of room for maneuver that has been left to the social partners during the discussions. “If you go into negotiations whose outcome is already known, where is the social dialogue?” he wondered.

In recent weeks, Yolanda Diath has said she wants a tripartite deal, which would include unions and employers’ organizations. But he did not rule out the possibility of negotiating only with the unions in case of opposition from CEOE, as was done in mid-January for the increase in the minimum wage.

To pass the draft law, the government will also have to overcome the reservations of many of its regional allies such as the Basic Nationalist Party (PNV) and Catalan separatists Junts per Catalunya (JxCat), who are close to the business world.