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Sant Julià de Lòria approves 37‑hour week and municipal labour reforms

The communal council adopted a package changing work hours, schedules, pay rules and organisation to improve work‑life balance and address.

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Key Points

  • Introduces a compacted 37‑hour week, continuous daily schedule with a 30‑minute break, reorganised shifts and extended citizen service hours.
  • Revises compensation and rules: marriage allowance cut to €200, birth allowance €300, and work beyond 40 hours will not be paid.
  • Aims to tackle recruitment problems and ageing staff (average age 49); officials say reforms should retain staff and attract new hires without raising pay grids.
  • Vote divided in opposition (two abstentions); municipal staff association ATCOSA and a multi‑party working table backed the changes; council reported a budget surplus and planned investments.

The Sant Julià de Lòria communal council approved a package of labour reforms for municipal staff that includes a compacted 37‑hour working week, a continuous daily schedule with a 30‑minute break, reorganised shifts and expanded citizen service hours. The measures, presented as a way to improve work‑life balance and make employment at the Comú more attractive, also revise compensation rules and the organisational structure.

Officials said the changes aim to address persistent recruitment problems: the council has reported that many public job notices go unfilled and that the average age of municipal employees is 49. Cerni Cairat, the cònsol major, described the reforms as intended to retain existing staff and attract new talent without directly increasing salary grids, while the cònsol menor, Sofia Cortesao, framed the shift as a reorganisation of time that should preserve or raise productivity.

The approved regulations cover internal management, schedules, compensation and organisational adjustments. They include enhanced social protection measures, a review of responsibility allowances, clearer rules on legal defence and simplified procedures. The council also adjusted specific bonuses: the marriage allowance was cut from €1,400 to €200 and the birth allowance increased to €300. The administration says citizen service hours will be extended and that working beyond 40 hours will not be compensated.

The vote exposed divisions within the opposition group. Two opposition councillors, Josep Majoral and Mireia Codina, abstained, arguing that reducing working hours while the administration reports staff shortages is contradictory and that greater restraint on personnel spending should be considered. Sandra De la Rosa, also an opposition councillor who participated in the commission that drafted the rules, voted in favour; she and her party, Demòcrates, said her vote reflected the work done in commission and was a matter of management rather than political alignment.

Demòcrates’ national and local representatives downplayed the significance of the split, calling it a technical, management‑level decision and stressing that De la Rosa acted coherently with her commission work. The party said there is no broader political rapprochement or fracture implied by the differing votes.

The municipal staff association, ATCOSA, welcomed the reforms. Its president, Ramon Ibars, said the measures were the result of consensus in a working table that included political leaders, managers, HR technicians and union representatives, and that the changes should improve conciliation and cover the needs of different departments.

Council leaders also highlighted institutional work aimed at improving coordination between elected officials and technical staff, including the creation of a personnel commission and regular working tables. Officials noted the measures follow months of dialogue and were designed to respond to long‑standing demands and practices used successfully in other parishes.

Alongside the labour package, the council reported a budgetary surplus for the period and outlined plans for capital investments, including new parking infrastructure. Proponents said the financial position partly reflects limited investment due to staffing constraints but expressed an expectation that the reforms will help reduce vacancies and allow planned projects to proceed.

Original Sources

This article was aggregated from the following Catalan-language sources:

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