Spain Looks to Downsize Its Workweek

Workers in Spain may soon have 2.5 more hours of weekly rest. As the AP reports, the Spanish government approved a bill on Tuesday reducing the workweek from 40 to 37.5 hours. Twelve and a half million full-time and part-time private-sector workers will benefit from the reduction, expected to improve productivity and reduce absenteeism, according to the Ministry of Labor. "Today we are modernizing the world of labor and helping people to be a little happier," said Labor Minister and Second Vice President Yolanda Diaz. The measure, which already applies to civil servants and some sectors, will mainly affect the retail, manufacturing, hospitality, and construction industries, Diaz added.

The parliament, where the left-wing coalition government doesn't have enough votes, will have to approve the bill for it to come into effect. The main trade unions support the proposal, unlike the business association. Sumar, the leftist minority partner of President Pedro Sanchez's Socialist Workers' Party, proposed the bill. The Catalan nationalist party Junts, an occasional ally of Sanchez's coalition, expressed concern over what it said were the bill's negative consequences for small companies and the self-employed. Spain has had a 40-hour workweek since 1983, when it was reduced from 48 hours.

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