“Historically in Spain, presenter“, acknowledges the general secretary of the Pimec employers association, Joseph Ginesta. In a country traditionally characterized by low wages, one of the ways to rise or develop was to work more hours than was strictly determined. Either supplementing the salary with overtime or qualifying for a future promotion.
This ‘heat the chair’ culture, often for no reason, has left its mark on remote working lately. As Covid infections became anecdotal, many companies whistled for their employees to return to the office. According to data from INE, the peak of remote work was reached during the lockdown with 19.1% of wage earners, 13.1% surviving today, and only half of these remote workers are working from home rather than the office.
While in countries like Germany anyone Sweden Working overtime is not welcomed by society and it is common for office lights to turn off automatically after a certain time. As the sun goes down in Spain, a large part of the working population goes about their day. According to OECD data, a Spanish worker works an average of 1,643 hours per year, 300 more than a German, 200 more than a Swede and 140 more than a Frenchman. So at the end of the year a Spaniard works almost two months more than a German. In this sense, a Spaniard’s day is more like that of his Iberian, Portuguese or Mediterranean, Italian or Greek neighbors.
“The number of hours worked in a German factory will not differ much from the hours worked in a Spanish or Italian factory. The problem is that the industry weighs much less here and services, especially those who live with the public, are very involved”, states economics, accounting and finance at Esade. professor, Pedro Aznar. “Being an SME country doesn’t help either, because the organizational efficiency that large companies can achieve is simply not available to many micro or small companies,” adds Ginesta.
The issue of working hours entered the election campaign. Parties such as Sumar, the maximum working day 37.5 hours per week Equal to those of the authorities, the PSOE advocates activating incentives, which it does not set, for employers and unions to agree among themselves and to reduce working hours in each sector. PP, for its part, has yet to make recommendations on this.
toxic days
Spaniards’ working hours are not only long but also irregular. And youth They are the worst part about it. According to data from the INE, 35.2% of those under 25 work occasionally or repeatedly until the afternoon. Again, according to the same data, 27.9% of the youth work more or less regularly on Sundays.
Long working hours and lack of rest between shifts are two of the many factors that can explain an illness. “toxic” employment relationship, In the words of Joan Benach, UPF professor and co-director of the JHU-UPF Center for Public Policy. Added to high rates of work, lack of autonomy for the same amount of time, or insecurity about whether a person will be fired for a mistake or failure, or whether their contract will be renewed at the end of it, can cause a worker to burn out.
“Having bad working conditions permeates your body, sometimes suddenly, sometimes more chronically. It is a poisonous thing that wears us out physically and mentally. Contrary to our image of the overwhelmed manager, workers with worse working conditions have more myocardial infarctions,” he explains.
It is no coincidence that Spain, as he himself stated, is the country with the highest consumption rates in the world. benzodiazepines Per person. Benach led a group of experts to whom the Department of Labor commissioned a report on the effects of precarity on Hispanic mental health. Accordingly, approximately 11% of adults state that they have used sedatives, relaxants or sleeping pills in the last two weeks. “People were so crushed,” he says.
Advances in reconciliation
In terms of hours worked, Spain (and Western economies in general) has gradually reduced working hours until late at night. 80s when it entered a relative stagnation in this regard in the last century. According to union sources consulted, reducing the annual working day is one of the most difficult issues in collective bargaining, and employers surrender more easily when it comes to raising wages than reducing working hours.
However, recently there have been advances in terms of bag clocks. In other words, the day itself is not touched, the days off are added. It is necessary to add the changes from the Administration brought about the reconciliation. For example, until 2007, men only had two days to give birth to a child, and they now have boys. 16 weeks, like women
Pending issue according to UPF law and Social Security professor Consuelo Chacarteguiis flexibility in terms of agreement. In other words, the ability for employees to request a specific timetable or specific distribution from the company to take care of children or parents. “Currently, companies have excessive powers to unilaterally distribute the workday,” he affirms.
Chicken or egg?
It is an objective fact that Spain’s productivity indices (GDP produced by hours worked) are far from the European average. Why and how to fix it is the result of further discussion. This Spanish workers Do they work long hours because they are not productive or are they inefficient because they work long hours?
Returning to the sectoral composition of the Spanish economy, the Esade researcher cites this as a relevant factor. In other words, the aviation industry, which is scarce in Spain, is not as productive as Spain. hostel, abundance. “Technological intensity in Spain is 66.2% relative to the eurozone average,” says Aznar. So companies are investing less in technology.
The expectation of a long day also causes workers to dose themselves more during the day to endure all these hours. “Reducing the workday alone does not increase productivity, it takes a big country agreement to improve organizationally. Likewise, we became aware of this a few years ago. occupational hazards and now that employees are wearing their helmets and bosses are making sure they are, we should do the same with regards to productivity and working hours”, confirms Pimec general secretary.