The tourism industry estimates that reducing the working day to 37.5 hours would cost the sector 2,348 million euros.
Companies in the tourism sector are strongly opposed to the reduction of the maximum working day from the current 40 hours to 37.5 in 2025 that the Government is pursuing. This Thursday, Exceltur, the association that encompasses the main companies in the sector, has presented a report in which they denounce that The measure could cost tourism 2,348 million euros. Or what is the same, 8.1% of the sector’s operating profits (profits before paying taxes, interest on debt…). An impact that in activities such as catering or transportation could account for 17% of gross profits.
The Exceltur employer’s association believes that this would be the cost that companies in the sector would have to face to cover the hours worked that would be lost if the working day was reduced. He lobby tourism estimates that, of the 2.2 million employees who work in positions linked to this activity1.2 million would benefit from this reduction in working hours.
However, one million of these employees are employed in jobs in which a reduction in working time cannot be compensated with a more efficient use of time, according to Exceltur’s criteria. It is above all about cooks, kitchen assistants and waiters and, to a lesser extent, ground transportation drivers, cleaning employees and sports activities instructors.
Translated into time worked, this would imply that 5.7 million hours worked per week would be lost (295 million per year). Of them, three out of four could not be compensated through a more efficient use of work time, Exceltur estimates.
Furthermore, employers point out that the small size of tourism companies – 94% are micro-SMEs with less than 10 employees – makes it difficult to adapt to this reduction in working hours. In those cases, if they do not find alternatives, MicroSMEs may be forced to cut hours in the services they provide, with the consequent loss of billing that this could entail. A problem that adds to the difficulties in obtaining labor reported by many companies in the sector.
In-personism
One of the main arguments with which the Ministry of Labor justifies the viability of the measure is to achieve improved productivity through better time management. That is, forcing companies to reorganize their processes and activity so that they are able to do more with less and so that workers have more free time to enjoy.
The tourism industry believes, however, that this It would be very difficult in your sector due to the characteristics of your activity, that is governed by what consumers command. “Most of the services are in-person and need workers to provide their services at the times their clients enjoy,” says Exceltur. The schedules, they add, are not chosen by the companies.
The only way employers see to gain productivity is to provide more value-added services. “The productivity gains of a waiter are not in serving more tables at the same time, but in serving dishes and drinks of higher value,” they give as an example.
The second vice president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, has been especially critical of the closing hours of the restaurant sector. Díaz has even said that “it is not reasonable” for restaurants to be open until 1:00 a.m. in the morning, which earned him criticism from Hostelería España (the lobby of the sector) and the Madrid PP.
Instead of reducing hours, companies propose a reduction in social contributions that allows reducing the labor costs faced by companies. In addition, they propose recovering the application priority of company agreements regarding the organization of working hours; more training for workers and that tax incentives be introduced to reinvest the undistributed profits of these companies.
