CEHAT warns that reduced working hours threaten 24-hour service

After the approval by the Spanish Government of the bill for the reduction of working hours, the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation (CEHAT) is strongly against it, denouncing that the particularities of the hospitality and tourism sector have not been taken into account.

Spanish hoteliers state that, if this measure were to go ahead, it would cause the “impossibility of providing 24-hour service” and, therefore, the “impossibility of adapting to the needs and demands of our national and foreign visitors”.

This royal decree, as CEHAT points out, is not adapted to the sectorial needs, “since it has a direct impact on organizational aspects of the companies for the provision of services”. 75% of the lodging sector is made up of family businesses and SMEs, for which the increase in costs is unaffordable and jeopardizes their economic viability.

The employer stresses that in many areas of Spain there is an increasing difficulty to incorporate people by the lack of professionals and, in many seasonal tourist areas, with 60% of the total number of places, it is increasingly difficult to go people to work in season due to rising rental prices due to lack of housing on the market.

“What the sector needs is that the rigidity of the labor market disappears in order to adapt it to the needs of workers and companies, making labor relations more flexible, since rigidity, on many occasions, goes against the workers' own wishes”, he added in a statement.

On the other hand, CEHAT considers that the reduction of the working day is a direct interference in the space of the social dialogue that employers and unions have maintained for many years;and recalls that there is a state collective agreement (ALEH) and provincial agreements that are adapted to the territory and that "have marked positive labor relations that have allowed Spain to be the most competitive country in the world in tourism and the first source of economic dynamism.

The employers insist that “a measure as harmful as this will jeopardize the tax contribution that generates tourism and could á lead to the closure of many companies and the disappearance of thousands of jobs ”.

As its president, Jorge Marichal points out that "the service we provide has to be 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in many cases, forced by industry regulations. Our workers are not sitting in an office from Monday to Friday, but providing services directly to the public.