Friday, September 01, 2006
Ever met a tired or grumpy waiter?
If you have, then this is probably the reason why. Breaking the myth, according to this report, in Spain people earn less than in other countries in Europe, whilst they work longer and their vacations are shorter, while production is low.
This data is a revelation over the peculiarity of the labour market in Spain, where seven out of ten workers are in favour of government measures to limit the working day by law, according to a survey for the Financial Times, carried out by consultancy firm, Harris. The working week in Spain is an average of 38.2 hours, above the European average of 36.5 and it isn't that Spaniards work more to be able to get longer breaks later, because the average number of day's holiday in Spain is 22.8 days, four less than the average in Europe and the lowest among the twelve countries included in the survey.
And to make matters worse, in the last year Spain is the country where the real value of the average salary has fallen the most.
National opinion in Spain is completely contradictory to all of the other large European countries, where most people are totally opposed to government intervention, something, which, at first sight, is surprising. But it should not be as, in the Spanish labour market, workers are expected to work longer, without being paid for the extra hours, with already comparatively low salaries.
What the report doesn't mention is the fact that in the huge number of cases in the hospitality sector - such as wait staff - those hours are not consecutive.
They are often required to work split shifts of morning, then evening. With costs of housing being prohibitive near the centers of work or, especially in Tenerife, the route too mountainous or too busy to consider 4 times a day, it is not the case that these workers get a long break between their shifts and - based on a morning shift that begins at 8 a.m. and an evening shift that finishes at 2 a.m. - they end up having effectively worked an 18 hour day, plus travel time, six days a week.
This is something that doesn't show up on the official statistics. So, if you do meet a tired or grumpy waiter, cut him or her some slack!
En España se trabajan más horas, se cobra menos y por menos vacaciones que el resto de europeos
