Madrid (EFE).- A total of 41 industrial SMEs with a workforce of less than 250 workers have requested aid from the Ministry of Industry’s pilot program to reduce the working week to four days without cutting wages.
“This first pilot program demonstrates that companies are open to a new way of organizing their working hours, with reductions in working time without affecting wages,” said the Minister of Industry, Héctor Gómez, on Thursday in statements collected in a note.
The SMEs that have applied to participate in the four-day work week pilot come from thirteen autonomous communities: Catalonia (11), Andalusia (6), Galicia (4), the Basque Country (4), Asturias (3), Navarra ( 3), the Canary Islands (3), Madrid (2), Cantabria (1), Castilla y León (1), Castilla-La Mancha (1), Extremadura (1) and the Balearic Islands (1).
Without lowering wages
The program seeks to promote the improvement of productivity in small and medium-sized private companies that carry out industrial activity through grants of up to 200,000 euros if they reduce 10% of the working day for a minimum of 24 months without lowering wages.
The budget credit assigned to this call amounts to 9,650,000 euros, although the total value of the eligible expenses requested by the 41 projects presented is more than three times lower (2.83 million euros).
According to the Ministry of Industry, the total number of workers assigned to the pilot projects is 503 people.
The call for the pilot program established that the number of participating workers must affect at least 30% of the workforce in companies with up to 20 workers and 25% in companies with between 21 and 249 workers and, furthermore, it is only applicable between people with a full-time indefinite contract at the time the project starts.