The First Vice President of the Government and Minister of Economy, Trade and Business, Carlos Cuerpo, defends that the reform of the time registration promoted by the Second Vice President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, incorporates for SMEs a one-year adaptation period, instead of the 20 days foreseen in the draft that received the unfavorable opinion of the Council of State.
Cuerpo, in statements to the SER chain collected by Europa Press, has reiterated that time registration "is a necessary measure to continue effectively advancing in the reduction of the working day", one of the Executive's commitments.
Nevertheless, it has stressed the importance of "transitoriness" in the obligation for the time record to be digital, so that small and medium-sized enterprises can gradually incorporate these changes "without an additional cost".
"We are talking, in this case, about conditions that are essential for the implementation to be effective. We share the purpose, we share the objective and we are going to continue moving towards it and we believe that the more balanced the implementation is, the more we help our companies and the easier it will be for us to achieve as soon as possible that this digitized time record is a reality in our country," he/she pointed out.
For the head of Economy, a "balanced" design implies that the new time registration system takes into account "the real conditions" of the productive fabric. Along these lines, he recalled that one of his department's proposals is that SMEs, "instead of the 20 days currently proposed by the text, have one year" to adapt to the new obligation.
Given the possibility that this extension of the deadline to one year generates rejection in Yolanda Díaz, Cuerpo has stressed that "the how is a legitimate discussion, which has nothing to do with the what." "It is our duty to try to advance as soon as possible in this concept of the how, that is, as I said before, in a balanced way, so that we achieve the what, which is that we share that objective, as soon as possible," he has emphasized.
Sources from the Ministry of Labor pointed out last week that they do not contemplate introducing modifications that would make time registration more lax for small businesses, considering that this would entail discrimination with respect to large companies, and defended that the norm already foresees that SMEs are accompanied in the process of improving time registration.
Those same sources insisted that they will not accept the proposal put forward by the Ministry of Economy, since the purpose of the regulation is to guarantee effective control of the 40 weekly hours and prevent abuses in overtime hours.
Furthermore, regarding the adaptation periods to the new system, Labor stressed that the text establishes that, once it comes into force, technical standards must be defined, for which a period of six months is set for companies to adapt to them and not an exclusive limit of 20 days.