Working day ending at 18.00 agreed in Parliament
Friday, April 29, 2016 @ 10:42 AM
ACTING president Mariano Rajoy's last-minute idea of ending the working day at 18.00 has been approved in Parliament, but it is not known when it will be put in place.
The move will include a 'time bank', whereby workers can store up extra hours to use for family or personal issues that require them to take time off, without eating into their holiday allowance.
With 140 votes in favour, 10 against and 98 abstaining, the first stage of the new working hours decree has gone through.
PP Senator, María del Mar Ángulo, pointed out that Spain has the third-longest working days in the European Union already, and with the extended lunch period spend more time away from home than practically any other country's employees.
Despite working more hours a day than 25 other EU countries, Spain is the least productive of them all.
The Senator cited research which shows the risk of stress, exhaustion and work-related accident and illness rises when employees spend long hours on the job, but productivity actually falls.
A shorter day 'offers health and quality of life' which will make staff more efficient and active when they are, in fact, at work.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com