New collective bargaining negotiations set the longest official daily working hours in 12 years

Salary increases stay the same as last year: 0.56%

MADRID -- Negotiations between unions and the employers' collectives have not recovered since the introduction of controversial new labour laws by the PP government. Official statistics show that there were 1,319 agreements signed over the first nine months of the year, only 100 more than last year and the worst since the crisis began. One of the principal inducements aimed at renewing the contracts was the so-called 'ultra-activity' clause in the law that kept current existing but outdated contracts, until a new one had been negotiated. Experts point out that the daily working hours rose by 30 annual hours for 2014, or 1,756 hours, compared to the same period last year, and the longest since 2002. Negotiations centred on new contracts starting on January 1, 2015, have fixed the annual working hours at 1,825, according to the Ministry of Employment. The Autonomous Communities with the longest work day:

Canaries 1,814 hours

Balearic Islands 1,776

Andalucía 1,774

Madrid 1,771

Castilla-La Mancha 1,771

And at the opposite end:

Catalonia 1,700

Navarre 1,700

Basque Country 1,716

Asturias 1,748

Salaries

Between January and September, salary increases stayed at a rise of 0.56%, exactly the same as in 2013. The sector gaining the highest rises is in construction, which gained 1.22%, double the average despite being the main victim of the financial crisis, while the worst hit in this regard were the civil servants, who were only able to scratch up an increase of 0.02%, mainly because of the significant cutbacks in this sector ordered by the central government.