Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Hours of Work (Commerce and Offices) Convention, 1930 (No. 30) - Spain (Ratification: 1932)

Articles 6 and 7 of the Convention. Averaging of hours of work. Overtime. The Committee notes the comments of the General Union of Workers (UGT), which were received on 4 September 2013 and transmitted to the Government on 23 September 2013. It also notes the communication of the Trade Union Confederation of Workers’ Commissions (CC.OO.) dated 30 August 2013 which was transmitted to the Government on 16 September 2013. The UGT indicates that hours of work in the commerce sector are essentially regulated through collective agreements providing for the averaging of working hours over a period of one year subject to a 40-hour weekly limit. The UGT points out that, whereas normal hours of work are eight per day, following the crisis and new legislation on working time, the ten-hour working day tends to become general practice. Finally, the UGT indicates that, notwithstanding the normal 12-hour period of daily rest, Royal Decree No. 2001/1983 provides for the possibility of reducing daily rest to only eight hours in the sectors of commerce, catering and transport, thus seriously worsening the working conditions in these sectors. For its part, the CC.OO. refers to section 34(2) of the Workers’ Statute, as amended by Act No. 3/2012, according to which, in the absence of a collective or enterprise agreement allowing the uneven distribution of working hours throughout the year, an enterprise may still apply the averaging to 10 per cent of the working hours. The CC.OO. indicates that this possibility, together with the employers’ discretionary power to unilaterally modify working conditions (section 41(1) of the Workers’ Statute) and the modification of working-time arrangements in the commerce sector pursuant to Royal Decree No. 20/2012, has a significant impact on workers in the commerce sector and may give rise to practices that are inconsistent with the provisions of the Convention. The Committee notes, in this respect, the Government’s response to the comments of the UGT in which it indicates that section 2 of Royal Decree No. 1561/1995 requires any reduction in daily or weekly rest to be compensated with alternative rest of the same duration, which may be accumulated and taken together with annual holiday. The Committee asks the Government once more to take the appropriate steps to ensure that the national legislation only allows the limits determined by the Convention in relation to daily and weekly hours of work to be exceeded occasionally, in the context of the averaging of working time, in the circumstances envisaged by the Convention. The Committee also requests the Government to refer to the comments made under Articles 5 and 6 of the Hours of Work (Industry) Convention, 1919 (No. 1).