Another setback for the 35-hour week

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In November 1999, the Spanish parliament declined to debate the issue of a 35-hour working week and refused to accept for consideration a "popular legislative initiative" supported by more than 750,000 signatures.

A "popular legislative initiative" (Iniciativa de Ley Popular, ILP) providing for the introduction of a 35-hour working week, which had received the support of 750,000 people, was presented to the Spanish parliament in November 1999. The ILP is a procedure provided for under the Spanish Constitution that allows ordinary citizens to present proposals directly to Congress if they are endorsed by a certain number of signatures. The initiative was drawn up by a platform led by the United Left (Izquierda Unida) political party, some trade unions - CGT, USO and opposition elements in CC.OO- and certain citizens' organisations - the Anti-Maastricht Platform (Plataforma antiMaastricht), and the Confederation of Neighbourhood Associations of Spain (Confederación de Asociaciones de Vecinos de España). The main union confederations, CC.OO and UGT, did not support the proposal.

This initiative was conceived by its promoters as a proposal against unemployment and precariousness, and an alternative to the measures promoted by the economic orthodoxy in most European countries, which insist on wage moderation and deregulation of the labour market as recipes for creating employment. They believe that it is little use to have more employment if this generates precariousness and exclusion. The 35-hour week is seen as a step, among a variety of other actions (such as investment in environmental projects, penalisation of temporary contracts, prohibition of temporary work agencies, earlier retirement), toward an "alternative option of civilisation" which is more democratic, equitable and ecologically sustainable, and "subordinates the economy to the needs of the population".

The initiative proposes the introduction of a 35-hour working week without loss of purchasing power. The platform considers that the legislative channel is the most appropriate means of introducing a 35-hour week, because it is more equitable in its effects. Under the proposal, collective bargaining would only be used as a means for adapting working hours until the new law came into force. Despite receiving the support of 750,000 people, the proposal was not supported by other political parties and trade unions because (among other factors) they wish to base a reduction in working hours on other means (ES9903210N).

In November, the Congress of Deputies (parliament's lower house) not only rejected the legislative proposal's content, but did not even accept it for parliamentary consideration, thus, it is claimed by critics, attacking the right of Spanish citizens to present draft laws. The deputies of the governing People's Party (Partido Popular, PP) and those of its partners, the Catalan Convergencia i Unió (CIU) and the Canarian Coalition (Coalición Canaria, CC), constituting a majority, voted against considering the proposal. Although at the last moment many opposition parties - including the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE), the Basque Nationalist Party (Partido Nacionalista Vasco, PNV), the Galician Nationalist Bloc (Bloque Nacionalista Galego, BNG) and the Basque Eusko Alkartasuna (EA) - voted in favour, IU was the only political party that wished to debate a reduction in working hours. This indifference was clearly shown during the parliamentary session, which was attended by only some 30 deputies. The government's ministers, including Manuel Pimentel, Minister of Labour, and the leading deputies of the other political parties, were absent. For the moment, this setback has put an end to the possibility of a high-level political debate on the 35-hour week in Spain (ES9902297F).