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Calls for Spain to Return to GMT
The Spanish people work long hours, often into the dark
evening that is an hour later than it really should be.
For the past few years Spain has come close to moving back to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) but it’s never gone through with the move.
During the campaign process for the general election (not
counting the second election that happened in June) Prime Minister Mariano
Rajoy made it a campaign promise that he would return Spain back to GMT, taking
the country out of GMT+1 and bringing it back in line with Portugal and the UK,
which is where a country with its geographical position should be.
Rajoy is now back in power and he’s started the conversation
about bringing the clocks back an hour. Fátima Báñez, employment minister of
Spain, said last week that the country should think heavily about dropping
GMT+1. The country moved to the timezone in 1942 after General Francisco Franco
made the move to bring Spain in line with Nazi Germany.
Spain is actually a little further to the west than much of
the British Isles, and so it’s fallen out of sync with Europe. This is
something that has hampered the workforce of the country and could have held
back economic development for decades.
One of the main arguments of those pushing for the change is
that the working day in Spain is still based around agricultural labour
patterns, rather than being based around the reality that is the office-based
existence. While it’s not universal across the whole country many Spanish
workers begin their day at 9AM. They work until noon and take a few hours off,
before returning to the office to continue working until around 8PM. Critics argue
that this working day is too long and exhausting, not to mention it’s an hour
longer than it should be.
Fátima Báñez spoke of a desire to create a workday that end sat 6PM. To do this the government will need to deal with trade unions and
companies. Báñez will make the first move by meeting with the largest companies
and trade unions to create such a deal.
It’s unlikely that there will be opposition to these changes
in parliament for Rajoy’s People Party (PP). Both the Socialists (PSOE) and
Cuidanos already agree with the plans. There are very little arguments that
this change could have a negative impact, and even Catalonia supports the
change.
The change almost happened in the Balearics. Back in October
the islands implored Madrid to allow them to stay on summer time and not move
the clocks back an hour. The request was denied, but it should only be a matter of time now until Spain lets go of their traditions and embraces GMT.
