World of HR: Spain toys with shorter workweek

There’s nothing quite like a Spanish siesta, and workers in Spain may soon have time to enjoy them more.

Earlier this month, lawmakers in Spain approved a bill that would reduce the average workweek from 40 hours to 37.5 hours, Euroenews reported.

The reduced schedule already applies to civil servants and certain sectors in the country including education, but the new bill would expand the policy to retail, manufacturing, and hospitality, impacting roughly 12.5 million workers.

The bill will have to make its way through Parliament where it faces an uncertain future, and potential amendments to appease smaller political parties. While labor unions and the country’s socialist prime minister support the measure, business leaders and more conservative politicians oppose the bill.

A shorter workweek, “will impact negatively on small and medium sized companies, curtailing their profitability, their ability to invest, and adding a unwanted rigidity to corporate planning,” CEOE, a business lobbying group in Spain, said of the bill.

Some experts and Spanish labor minister Yolanda Díaz express confidence, however, that the move will benefit workers and employers. They believe it will improve productivity and work-life balance, reduce absenteeism, and modernize the country. “Today, we are modernizing the world of labor and helping people to be a little happier,” Díaz said.

The change may feel like a big shift, but several European nations already work fewer hours than Spain. Workers in Norway and Austria, for instance, work roughly 33 hours per week on average, according to Eurostat.

As for the US? We wouldn't hold our breath for any siesta-taking time becoming available.