Long weekend: Spain to implement 4-day working week

The containment by the coronavirus pandemic which last year slowed down the Spanish economy for long weeks could have resulted in a benefits for workers in this country, when they try a four day work plan, instead of 5.

“It’s wonderful, because it gives me time to work, to see family, friends, to have time to study”, said Danae De Vries, a 28-year-old who works as a waitress in a small restaurant chain. “It’s wonderful to have the time, not to rush, to be able to have this inner peace.”

That De Vries feel happier and more motivated it’s also better for her boss, María Álvarez, a businesswoman who had to make considerable changes in her two restaurants, offering a four-day rotating work week. Álvarez, mother of two, and her startup partner in La Francachela they had struggled to run the business without childcare assistance.

“We felt that society had turned its back on families, who had been betrayed»Explained Álvarez. “As business owners, we had to find solutions for our companies, our employees but also for our personal lives ”.

The reduction of one working day per week is about to be applied nationally in Spain – The first European country to do so. A three-year pilot plan will use € 50m ($ 59m) from the European Union’s coronavirus stimulus fund to compensate around 200 midsize businesses while realigning their workforce or reorganizing work processes to accommodate a 32-hour work week.

The funds will be used for subsidy of all additional costs from employers during the first year of the trial and then reduce government aid to 50% and 25% each consecutive year, in accordance with the Progressive Party’s plan More countries behind the initiative.

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

“The idea is not that European funds pay and that the Spaniards work less. The idea is that EU funds are used to approve measures that can increase the competitiveness and productivity of companies, which they aim for»Tejero pointed out.

Arguments in favor of the measure also cite benefits for the economy in general. A massive shift to a three-day weekend would generate higher consumption, especially in entertainment and tourism, the mainstay of the Spanish economy.

Reduction of working hours 40 to 35 per week in 2017 would have resulted in gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 1.5% and 560,000 new jobs, as a study published this year by the journal 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.

Software Delsol, in the south of Spain, invested 400,000 euros last year in reducing the working hours of its 190 employees and has since reported a 28% reduction in absenteeismbecause people choose to go to the bank or to medical consultations on their days off of the week. Its sales grew 20% last year and none of its employees have resigned since the adoption of the new employment plan.

However, critics point out that an economy affected by the pandemic is not the best framework for experimentation. With a contraction of 10.8% of GDP last year, its worst since the civil war of the 1930s, Spain has suffered from intermittent closures and the near total halt in international travel.

Some experts claim that The priority should be to resolve the dysfunctional labor market in the country, which has one of the highest unemployment rates in Europe and which is plagued by low-wage and precarious jobs.

With AP information

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