The Council of Ministers has given the green light to the processing of the draft law to reduce working hours at 37.5 hours a week without salary reduction. That does not mean that the reduction will be applied immediately, but that it is another step in the approval process and gives free way to be debated in Congress in the coming months.
Has the Law on Day Reduction been approved? No. The Council of Ministers has given its conformity to Draft for the reduction of day that the Ministry of Labor and Social Economics and the unions They signed In December 2024 after a year of negotiations.
This procedure is necessary for the Government to present the deletion to the Congress of Deputies. Once between the agenda of the parliamentary sessions, the different parliamentary groups will vote their approval prior amendments to the text.
The text is not definitive. As the name implies, the text of the draft for the reduction of day is a provisional working document, which parliamentary groups can propose amendments, annuling or adding measures to the proposal, until finally a consensus is reached and approved.
The processing time in Congress will depend on the amendments and negotiations between the different parliamentary groups. Given the current political arc fragmentation, it is possible that the parliamentary journey of this law will be extended over time due to the negotiations that the Government will need to achieve its final approval and is more than probable that its final text undergoes modifications with respect to the proposal.
When the reduction of working hours will be applied. Assuming that the processing in Congress follows its usual course, the day reduction law It could be approved before summer. However, there is no closed term for approval since, as we say, it will depend on parliamentary negotiations.
Once it is approved, article 34 of the Workers Statute To replace the weekly 40 hours of the current day, for 37.5 hours of the new day. At this point, the clock will be launched and the different negotiation tables of collective agreements must include the new 37.5 -hour day in those who contemplated a 40 -hour day.
That said, and taking into account that all the previous deadlines are fulfilled, it leads us to reduce the day to 37.5 hours could enter into force as of December 31, 2025.
Much more than reducing the day. The text that will arrive at Congress (which does not have to be the same that comes out) has as its main pillar the reduction of working hours to a maximum of 37.5 hours per week for the full day, or its equivalent in the part -time models, No salary reduction. This measure is framed in the objective of Improve productivity and family conciliation.
However, to ensure effective compliance with the reduction of working hours, a modification of the day registration system. This registration must be carried out through digital means, guaranteeing objectivity, reliability and accessibility to employees, union representatives and labor inspection.
Workers must register the entry, exit and any interruption In your day and these records must be maintained for four years. The draft does not detail whether the government will create a new platform, if it can be carried out with any of the digital registration platforms that already exist or how that registry will be made.
More rights and more obligations. The draft law that will arrive at Congress also addresses the inalienable right to Digital disconnectiona right that was already addressed in the process of the call Teleworking Lawbut that is reinforced with this new rule.
Employees are explicitly exemp Reason for sanctions or reprisals. Exceptions are only established in cases of justified emergency.
With the new standard, new sanctions are also included, increasing the amount of fines to companies that Failure to comply with the day regulationsrest and schedule registration and how to account it, which will no longer impose for each type of sanction, but for each employee affected by breach.
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