Spain government divided over four-day work week
EMPLOYMENT POLICY: Cutting work hours would help the country gain ‘competitiveness, quality of life and employment,’ a labor group leader said
AFP, MADRID
The Spanish government is deeply split over a proposal to shorten the work week to four days to fight high unemployment sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The measure is being pushed by far-left party Podemos, the junior partner in Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government that has ruled the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy since January.
Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Pablo Iglesias, leader of Podemos, earlier this month said that the Spanish Ministry of Labor, Migrations and Social Security was looking into reducing work hours, adding that this “could without a doubt favor the creation of employment.”