Monday 6 February 2017

Calls for Spain to Return to GMT

Could the siesta days for the Spanish be over?

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.

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.