The fine print of four-day workweeks

Telefónica will apply the 32-hour workday with a salary reduction on a voluntary basis.Jaime Villanueva

It has been one of the news of the month.

Telefónica will implement the week of four days of work and three days of rest on a voluntary basis from October.

Of course, workers who opt for it will see their salary cut by 20%.

The operator movement strengthens the race for mental health care, increasingly at the center of corporate policies.

The measure joins other successful actions that many companies implement to take care of their employees, such as the intensive summer shift, or the elimination of rigid entry and exit schedules to work.

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• When working one day less works

However, these benefits can be much ado about nothing if bosses don't take their foot off the gas, and employees are forced to log in on days off.

In these cases, the commitment to reduced hours becomes dead paper and good publicity.

In Spain there is no law that regulates the 32-hour working day.

In this scenario, what is negotiated in each case with the companies takes on special importance.

For example, for Álvaro San Martín, labor lawyer for the Casadeley law firm, it is logical that, if the hours are cut along with the salary, the scissors will be reflected in the objectives to be met.

Pilar Menor, partner responsible for labor at DLA Piper Spain, agrees on the idea of ​​reducing objectives. If the firms choose to cut hours, the normal thing is that "the reduction of the working day entails a reduction in the workload of each employee affected by this measure," he points out. The second option is to hire more people, "a reinforcement of the workforce if the same hours of work are needed to maintain productivity."

In case of not reducing objectives or expanding equipment, operators may be forced to work on Fridays when it is not their turn if they are seen with the water up to their necks.

Connecting outside working hours implies overtime, but as Samuel González, Pinsent Masons' labor partner points out, whether these are legal will depend on factors such as "business needs and the work dynamics of the sector in which the company operates", in addition to "the specific regulation that is agreed between the company and the workers."

If the person chooses to put in more hours of their own free will, it is difficult for fraud to exist.

A different thing, points out San Martín, is that the bosses send emails or impose "orders or guidelines" to work on Fridays when the day ends on Thursday, which would be an abuse.

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• The Government opens the debate on the four-day working day in Spain

The current law says that the maximum working day for a worker is 40 hours per week of effective work.

It is an annual average, so it is legal to work 42 hours some weeks, and others 38. The sectoral agreement can define a new maximum, but this can never exceed the limit set by the Workers' Statute.

All time extensions that are not foreseen, and exceed the maximum working hours established by law, are irregular, warn the UGT experts. Overtime hours have their own rules: they cannot exceed 80 per year, they are voluntary and "have a penalty in terms of Social Security contributions," explain union sources. Therefore, the employee can refuse to comply with an order from the boss on a Friday without receiving retaliation for doing so if the company has adopted the four-working-day shift. The law qualifies a single exception: to attend a call to prevent or repair urgent damages. For example, a shipment of raw materials is in danger.

In the event that the employee is overwhelmed and disconnects late by system, he can report the situation both "individually and collectively", explains Samuel González.

The lawsuit "will have economic consequences in the form of payment of overtime," says the expert, in addition to the possible fine that the Labor Inspection could impose.

The UGT union recalls that if the company has the idea of ​​firing the complaining worker, the measure would be void, as it is an illegal retaliation for the exercise of a right.

The company would have to reinstate the operator, and in some cases, "compensate him for moral damages."

The punishment can also be administrative.

If the company receives some type of subsidy for maintaining the reduced working hours, "the immediate legal consequence would be the return of the aid in question and the penalty in future calls for aid", adds González.

On a third front, companies that practice false reduced hours may face problems with labor inspectors.

In UGT they warn that extending the day irregularly is a serious offense.

If the inspection notices a financial loss for the employees, the fines can rise up to 180,000 euros for a very serious offense.

For Álvaro San Martín, possible abuses are just around the corner.

"It is a situation that, clearly, would end up occurring in countless jobs, in which, for whatever reason, all the work cannot be removed in four days, a fifth being necessary, even if it is on specific days", predicts the lawyer.

It is, however, a controversial debate.

The UGT denies that the new session "entails greater exposure to fraud", or, at least, will not favor irregularities "more than the ordinary session already does."

In part, due to the strong control implied by the mandatory time registration, implemented in 2019.

Advance of the time register

For Pilar Menor, DLA Piper's labor partner, the implementation in 2019 of the time register makes it easier for workers to claim overtime in court. "It would be enough to resort to the registration of hours, compulsory for all companies, to demonstrate how many hours have been worked and what days services have been provided," emphasizes the lawyer. If the employee assures that he works on Fridays (when he must leave), the judge will automatically understand that the abuse exists if the company does not provide the transfer record, explains Álvaro San Martín, labor lawyer at the Casadeley law firm. This record must be kept for at least four years.