The Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Function, Óscar López, has announced that the 35-hour work week for civil servants of the General State Administration (AGE) will be implemented in the first half of April, thus taking the first step towards a progressive reduction of working time in the public sector.
According to what he explained, the objective is to recover this reduced working day model for public employees of the AGE, a historical demand that is already applied in some autonomous communities but was not fully extended in the state administration.
The measure will affect thousands of public employees, although its implementation will depend in part on the internal organization of each department and on negotiation with unions. The Government insists that the reduction in working hours will not imply a decrease in service quality, but rather will be accompanied by organizational adjustments.
Additionally, the implementation in the AGE can serve as reference for future debates on the reduction of the working day in the entire labor market. The Government has already opened the door to advance towards models with less hourly load, although for now the priority is to consolidate this measure in the public sector.
