The staff at the headquarters of the fashion firm Desigual, in Barcelona, will reduce their workweek to four days after, this Thursday, October 7, 86% of its 502 employees voted in favor of the measure proposed by the company. The new work schedule will be from Monday to Thursday, with the option of one day of teleworking, which will entail a 13% reduction in working hours, from the current 39.5 hours to 34.5 hours. The measure will imply a 6.5% salary decrease, because the company will assume part of the reduction.
The vote through ballot boxes, which took place in person during this Thursday's workday at the company's offices, had a 98% participation of the headquarters' workers and was carried out with notary supervision. In total, the group's entire staff amounts to 2,700 employees.
With this initiative, Desigual wants to consolidate itself as a disruptive company in the fashion industry and position itself as an attractive organization to retain and attract the best talent. The brand's general director, Alberto Ojinaga, has expressed satisfaction with the support achieved. The company had set as a goal to have the consent of at least 66% of employees to adopt the reduction of the workday. "We are very happy that the initiative has received such majority support from our workers. We knew it was a risky proposal and that it could generate doubts, but we are totally convinced that it will contribute to improving the balance between personal and professional life for all of us who are part of Desigual."
The company considers that it will be an advantage to retain and attract the best talentThis innovative measure arrives, however, with reticence from trade union organizations, despite the fact that the employees of Desigual's corporate headquarters do not have a works council or are unionized. UGT considers that it is not a measure to promote work-life balance and labor flexibility, but ratherthreatens a salary reduction in a sector where wages are already "precarious", commented Javier González, coordinator of the Commerce sector of FeSMC-UGT of Catalonia. In 2020, Desigual closed the year with a 40% drop in turnover, to 360 million euros, and losses of 80 million, after having earned 7.5 million in 2019.
From the outset, the unions warned that the practice carried out to propose the measure has not conformed to the rules of the labor legal system, since it involves applying a collective measure and has been done without the mandatory prior consultation regulated by current labor regulations and, therefore, no negotiation has been opened with the social party.
The union also warns workers that it has not been specified how the measure will affect the organization of work, nor what consequences it may have for workers who have not accepted it. Meanwhile, the company is aware that "the new work week will require a process of adaptation and effort from everyone, but if something the pandemic has shown us, it is that we can organize work and teams in a different way and continue to be efficient, prioritizing what is truly important," said the general director of Desigual, in a statement.
The brand's managers confirm that the initiative is part of a broader plan to offer disruptive work and reconciliation models, and that it also involves implementing improvements for the rest of the groups that cannot avail themselves of this working day – such as store workers, commercial and operations teams – and strengthening service to stores and logistics centers.