The general secretary of UGT, Pepe Álvarez, reiterated this Wednesday that the union organization is willing to abandon the negotiation tables if the Government does not give the green light in the coming weeks to the decree-law on time control, whose approval was postponed in July.
"Either before the end of this month the Council of Ministers approves the decree-law on time control, or we are not going to participate in the negotiation tables," Álvarez concluded in statements to the media in Almería. He then specified that the next meeting with the Executive will not be held until September 2, a date on which he hopes "that perspective" will open and "the Royal Decree" will be "on the way."
The UGT leader emphasized that there is a pact signed with the Government, although he acknowledged that the agreements do not have "much sense" if "the practice is not being implemented." In that case, he insisted, the union would withdraw from the social dialogue tables.
It is worth remembering that the Ministries of Labor and Social Economy and of Economy, Commerce, and Business agreed to move the processing of the time registration to September, instead of raising it to the Council of Ministers before the summer break, as had been initially proposed.
The representatives of both departments closed this commitment despite the "ultimatum" that CCOO and UGT issued in July, warning that if the Government did not approve the regulation before July 31, they would stop engaging in future agreements that then do not materialize.
At the end of March, the Council of State issued an unfavorable opinion on the time registration reform promoted by the Ministry of Labor, with which the department headed by Yolanda Díaz seeks to modify the system of control of hours worked to avoid manipulations and allow the Inspection to carry out remote checks.
The draft Royal Decree on time registration was sent to the Council of State at the end of February through urgent processing, so this consultative body of the Executive, whose reports are not binding in most cases, had to express itself quickly. The opinion was made public on March 23.
The Council of State positioned itself against approving the Royal Decree for the reform of the time registration, a measure initially integrated into the plan to reduce the workweek to 37.5 hours, citing the lack of adaptation by sectors to the new system, the additional burden it would imply for SMEs, and the choice of the Royal Decree route instead of a norm with the rank of law.
Furthermore, the opinion of the Council of State rejected the new time registration after the criticisms from the Ministries of Economy and Public Function regarding various aspects of the text.