President of the PIT CNT described it as an “act of a civilizing nature”
Experts, legislators and national authorities discussed the possibility of reducing the eight-hour working day at an event at the Legislative Palace
An activity organized by the Socialist Party, headed by Senator José Nunes, was held in the Annex of the Legislative Palace, in which different experts, legislators, leaders and authorities discussed the possibility of reducing the working day.
The meeting was attended by the Minister of Labor, Pablo Mieres; the president of the PIT CNT, Marcelo Abdala; the president of the Federation of Production Cooperatives, Marisol Fuentes; the president of the Confederation of Business Chambers, Diego O’Neill; and the member of the Feminist Intersocial, Alma Espino. The lawyers and specialists in Labor Law from UDELAR, Bruno Sande and Mariana Fernández, also took part. The activity was organized by the socialist senator José Nunes.
In this context, the president of the PIT CNT highlighted the initiative and assured that it is a good instance “to reflect” on the subject. “I am convinced that the reduction of the working day is a matter that transcends labor relations and the consequences that this debate can have are quite extensive,” said Abdala.
The reduction of the working day without reducing the salary is, for Abdala, “a long-term strategic project, which will serve to refound this advanced nature of legislation in our country.”
He admitted, however, that the debate “is complex”, since there are “different perspectives that are valid”.
“Obviously everyone is going to vigorously defend their interests, but the important thing is to try to develop an overall vision that benefits the vast majority of society,” he said.
During the activity, Abdala added: “The idea of reducing work time is not a subjective claim of the labor movement, but rather the objective operation of the capitalist system itself. Because permanently, by way of greater productivity, pressure is being exerted to reduce the necessary labor time invested in the production of a commodity. This has to do with the potential to improve the quality of life of the population. If the accelerated electronic transformation and the social productivity of work are not accompanied by a reduction in the duration of work time, what is exacerbated are the processes of regressive and anti-egalitarian distribution of the wealth produced”, he opined.
And he gave as an example what has happened in the manufacturing industry from 2006 to 2022: “In that time there was a 47% increase in production while the hours worked decreased by 29%. In other words, each hour of work has been twice as productive as it was in 2006”, indicated the president of the PIT CNT.
For Abdala, if productivity increases in an 8-hour workday and working time is not reduced, “this greater productivity will lead to business profitability, but not to an improvement in the quality of life of workers” .
Finally, he maintained that the objective with this reduction is that people can enjoy other things. “Here what we want is to conquer life,” she said. This, in his opinion, has to do “with artistic creation, with sport, with a more equal participation in care because here there is also a question of gender equality, with enjoyment, with building a more balanced society, more from labor relations, with nature and with ourselves. From our perspective, with all the complexities, this should be regulated through a law, after which it will be necessary to see how it is applied in the different branches of activity”, said the trade unionist.
