Spain will try to extend the weekend to three days

In this way, around 200 mid-sized companies will be compensated while they readjust their workforce or reorganize their processes. job in order to accommodate a 32 hour work week.

According to the initiative of the progressive party More countriesIn Spain, the funds will be used to subsidize any additional costs to employers during the first year of testing and then reduce government assistance to 50% and 25% each consecutive year.

The only condition is that the readjustment leads to a real net reduction in working time while maintaining the wages determined in the full-time contracts, explained Héctor Tejero, a legislator belonging to Más País to the regional assembly of Madrid.

“The idea is that European funds are used to approve measures likely to increase the competitiveness and productivity of companies., that’s what they want, ”he explained.

Arguments in favor of the measure also point to benefits for the economy as a whole. A massive switch to a three-day weekend would generate higher consumption, especially in entertainment and tourism, pillar of the Spanish economy, hard hit by the crisis triggered by the coronavirus.

A similar initiative in 2017, which reduced the weekly working day from 40 to 35 hours, allowed gross domestic product (GDP) to grow 1.5% and created 560,000 new jobs, according to the Cambridge Journal of Economics. Wages also rose 3.7% nationally, which particularly benefited women, who seek part-time work the most, according to the study.

For critics, however, an economy so hit by the coronavirus pandemic is not the best setting for experiments. Last year, the lock-up and paralysis of tourism for months caused the worst economic contraction in Spain since 1930, with a 10.8% drop in GDP.