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The big consultants claim that the working day is 12 hours

When we think of poor working conditions and labor slavery, many of us think of sectors such as hospitality or agriculture. But there are also, and bloody, in the great consultants. Or at least, they want there to be, and to legalize what they already practice, behind closed doors, in many of them: the 12 hour work days. And that they be carried out as the company wants. That is when it seems to the consultant in question, it will be enough for them to tell their workers that they have to work twelve hours. Because yes, without any consideration, and unilaterally.

This is one of the proposals of the Association of Consulting Companies (AEC), that is, the management of the consultants, for the collective agreement that is currently negotiating with the unions. It is the state agreement of consulting companies and market studies and public opinion, whose validity expired in 2019 and which currently affects half a million workers in the ICT sector.

As it could not be otherwise, the unions have categorically rejected this proposal for a sector that, contrary to what is thought because in their offices they usually wear a suit and tie (another inconvenience), has very low wages and conditions manifestly improvable working days. They have not been the only ones. The Minister of Labor and Vice President of the Government, Yolanda Díazhas rejected this proposal from the AEC through a message on its Twitter account.

According to Eldiario.es Raul de la Torre, coordinator of the ICT Sector of the Workers’ Commissions, despite the fact that workers in the sector usually have a very high qualification, according to the salary tables that had the agreement that ceased to be in force in 2019, 11 of its 14 professional categories with an annual salary stipulated below 14,000 euros per year . That is, below the minimum wage, which they are currently paying as required by law. However, the figures in these tables give an idea of ​​the low salaries paid by consultants while demanding the maximum from their employees.

For many of them, working hours that stretch to infinity is nothing new. Many of us know employees and former employees of those popularly known as “meat workers”, because they are authentic meat grinders, who end up physically and mentally exhausted after working twelve or more hours in a row for several days in a row and for years, who on top of that have to endure inconveniences and bad practices of all kinds. And do it for a salary that is not exactly to shoot rockets. Not a few get the hell out of consulting firms as soon as they can, recommending even to their worst enemies never to work for one of them.

Until not long ago, although these conditions were vox populi and there were already complaints about his working conditions and lawsuits that even reached the Supreme Court, there were no headlines denouncing him, something that began to change last year, when EY auditors in Spain denounced that there were many weeks in which they worked no less than 84 hours. Therefore, what the employers of the sector ask now is nothing more than to legalize what they usually do with their templates. CCOO has publicly denounced it, and de la Torre points out that with this proposal it seems that the consultants do not want to negotiate, and that it seems rather that what they are looking for is to start a conflict.

But approving 12-hour days, when currently they have approved a maximum of nine, is not the only regressive measure that consultants want to impose on their employees. In addition, AEC wants that, maintaining the maximum of 1,800 hours per year, there are changes in the working week, extending it from Monday to Saturday. What does this mean? That working on a Saturday would no longer count as a holiday, so it would not be paid as such, and the consultant could decide that its work week runs from Monday to Saturday and that its employees work six days instead of five, as usual.

Apart from this, according to de la Torre, they want 15% of the working day, which is 270 hours, to be distributed irregularly. This could lead to the consultant who wants to finish with a stroke of the pen with benefits such as summer time and reduced continuous working hours. To do so, they would only have the obligation to notify the affected workers five days before they put the measure into force. Y Jose Luis Mazón, one of the negotiators of the future agreement by UGTalready assures that they are not going to give it to him.

Both UGT and CCOO have asked the AEC to withdraw these proposals and to facilitate a negotiation that is focused on improving working conditions in the sector, which is going to be increasingly key to the development and transformation of the country. If they do not, as is logical, they do not rule out starting demonstrations and protests, and calling strikes.

Because instead of providing workers with sufficient rest, decent conditions and wages, and improvements to reconcile their work and personal life, the AEC intends to go back more than a century in workers’ rights and let them do what they want with them. Come on, have the workers at your complete disposal.

But in addition, with these days, they also seek another benefit for themselves: eliminate a work shift. With 12-hour work days, the consultants would have a full day with only two work shifts instead of three. And these companies, whose figures for results and benefits are often dizzying despite paying very low wages, would have even more income and benefits at the expense of the health and well-being of their workers.

The Association of Consulting Companies, which has not wanted to make any statements about its proposals so that the employment situation of its workers goes back several decades, has among its members Indra, Viewnext, Capgemini, Oesía, DXC Technology, NTT DATA (Everis), Alten, Accenture, IBM, Deloitte, Inetum, Atmira, Ayesa, Bilbomática, Bluetab, Cedec, Cegos, EY (Ernst&Young), Getronics, KPMG, Sopra Steria, Minsait, TCS (TATA Consultancy Services), Unisys, Vass, and Worldline.

In front he has Elena Salgadowhich is the President of the ACS, and that in her day she was Vice President of Economic Affairs of the PSOE government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, and it seems that when moving to the private sector she does not like to apply beneficial measures for workers. Quite the contrary. The proposals of the bosses that she chairs show that the only thing they want is to squeeze as much as they can from the workers, to maximize profit without caring about their rights and well-being.

Even King Felipe II, around the end of the 16th century, expressed more concern for the workers than the consultancies of the 21st century in Spain, which was evident with the signing in 1593 of Law VI of the Instruction Ordinance, which stated that «all workers in the fortifications and factories will work 8 hours a day, 4 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon; The hours will be distributed by the engineers according to the most convenient time, to avoid the workers from the heat of the sun and allow them to take care of their health and their conservation, without missing their duties.«. Even the workers in the mines had a day that they then described as reduced, seven hours a day. If the proposals of the AEC prosper, the employees of the consultants in Spain will have to work many more hours each day.

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