Pepe Álvarez pressures Puigdemont in order that Junts helps the discount of working hours in Congress | Economy | EUROtoday

UGT needs the legislature, which is barely making progress in its legislative agenda, to “continue on the right foot.” The common secretary of UGT, Pepe Álvarez, has requested this “above all to the Government”, but in addition to Junts per Catalunya, after assembly this Monday in Waterloo with the chief of this political formation, the previous Catalan president Carles Puigdemont. The essential cause for the commerce unionist’s go to to the politician who had fled from Spanish justice was to ask him to help the discount of the working day, one of many open components within the social dialogue that has not but come to fruition because of the rejection of the employers.

It had been 9 years since Álvarez, who was the chief of UGT in Catalonia for 26 years, had not seen Puigdemont, as he himself defined. He did so this Monday, when he went to Waterloo, a dormitory metropolis bordering Brussels, the place the previous Catalan president lives, to fulfill with him. The scenario through which the assembly was held offers cause to suppose that the unionist might additionally ask the independence chief to present oxygen to the progressive Government caught within the face of the problem of gathering help to hold out the Budgets. Without the seven Junts deputies, the parliamentary lifetime of the Spanish Executive might be virtually unattainable. But Álvarez has rejected within the subsequent look earlier than the press that the rationale for his journey to Belgium was to ask for one thing on behalf of the Government. However, nobody is unaware of Álvarez’s mediation function within the face of the weak point of the Executive’s parliamentary help in Congress. It will want the help of Junts to hold out the discount of working hours, amongst different pending legislative initiatives, resembling the rise within the tax on vitality firms or the budgets.

Álvarez has certainly demanded, as chief of UGT, that the Government adjust to what it agreed with the Catalan conservative independentists. “It would be good if both the Government and Junts in their part, but above all the Government, were aware that the agreements must be complied with. Flexible interpretations of the agreements must be made to continue this legislature on the right foot. Because this is about this, about continuing the legislature, approving laws,” he famous, making it clear that he believes that the Executive should do extra of its half to please Junts. These phrases have particular which means at a time when Junts has threatened the Government with breaking apart definitively if it doesn’t adjust to what was agreed and has demanded a vote of confidence.

But if Álvarez was interested by something this Monday, it was understanding the predisposition of Puigdemont and his social gathering in direction of one of many largest union calls for of current years: the discount of the working day to 37.5 hours per week. The measure seems within the PSOE and Sumar Government settlement, and though it has been negotiating for months on the social dialogue desk, it has not but seen the sunshine of day. The employers’ rejection of this variation, which might be historic, prevents it from turning into a authorized textual content for now.

Whether or not CEOE is a part of an settlement to cut back working hours is kind of vital, for the reason that signature of the businessmen can entice the help or, no less than, the abstention of extra conservative events such because the PP, Junts or PNV. But this situation appears dominated out and that’s the reason Álvarez’s go to takes on particular significance. “I think that President Puigdemont did not have the same impression when we entered [a la reunión] than when we left,” he famous with some optimism.

Junts’ place is vital, as a result of with out their votes, as with out these of the PNV, the discount of working hours has no likelihood of succeeding within the Congress of Deputies. “I have the feeling that, in relation to what Junts’ position will be, there is work to be done and we are going to try with all our strength,” Álvarez defined, in an look, through which he tried to take most care of relations with the Catalan independentists, making it clear that with out them it isn’t potential for the legislature to maneuver ahead with the approval, amongst different legislative tasks, of the 2025 budgets.

This dedication has been demonstrated when he responded that it does appear “anomalous” to see “the president of Junts”, “but it is just as anomalous that the Amnesty law has not been implemented and, therefore, we could do this have done in Madrid.”