Employers and unions agree on a critical report on the reduction of working hours at the CES

The Economic and Social Council, the Government's advisory body in which employers and unions are represented, issued a critical report on Wednesday on the draft law for the reduction of the maximum working day to 37.5 hours with a total of 54 votes in favour and only two against . The councillors have carried out a last-minute negotiation to reach a consensus position on a matter in which both the representatives of the unions and the business organisations started with opposing positions after almost a year of negotiations with the Ministry of Labour. The third group, made up of the agricultural and fishing sectors, cooperatives and the consumer council, as well as six experts proposed by the Executive, leaned towards the unions' draft at the end of last week and finally, the companies have also joined in.

This is what sources from the institution have indicated to elEconomista.es after the president of CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, expressed this morning at an event organised by 'La Razón' his confidence that the Plenary Session of the CES would issue a "critical" document, thus opening the door to a movement in the votes of the business organisations. The report is not binding on the Executive , so the head of Labour, Yolanda Díaz, is not obliged to incorporate the comments of this body into the project that she sends to the Congress of Deputies, although the accumulation of questions that are developed throughout the text suppose a warning for the head of the branch, who always boasts of having social dialogue in the focus when it comes to governing.