Working culture ‘must adapt to Europe’

26 April 2004

MADRID – Spanish working culture must adapt to the rest of Europe, the new minister of Employment and Social Affairs said Monday.

In an interview on state-run TVE, Jesús Caldera said “a new working culture has to be implemented” in order to “adapt our timetables and working to style to the rest of Europe, which will improve our private and working lives”.

With reference to reducing the working week to 35 hours, Caldera said that adapting workers’ timetables through collective bargaining is better than to reducing hours.

He said it is no longer possible to compete efficiently with low labour costs in other countries.

Caldera said  more importance must be given to training.

In the UK, 30 percent of workers receive further training, but in Spain this figure only reached five percent.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

                          Subject: Spanish news