Like his colleagues at PricewaterhouseCooper consultancy agency in Madrid, Sergio Padilla was accustomed to working 12 hours a day: from 9am till 9pm.
At peak occasions, these days may even stretch after midnight to the wee small hours of the subsequent morning, Padilla — whose title has been modified to guard his id — tells Euronews.
This appeared utterly regular to him, as all his colleagues on the consultancy had been in the identical scenario. Every of the departments endured marathon working days.
He would barely have any free time after work, simply going dwelling to get some sleep earlier than returning to the workplace as soon as once more. He didn’t even have time to purchase groceries from the grocery store, ending up consuming quick meals for each meal as a substitute.
Throughout his two years with the corporate, Padilla grew extra “bitter”, he mentioned, together with his work impacting his temper and social life.
So he determined to depart his job early in 2020, feeling he couldn’t take it anymore.
Now, Spain’s Labour division is investigating working practices and situations on the so-called ‘Massive 4’ consultancy corporations, made up of Deloitte, PwC, EY and KPMG.
Their workplaces had been raided in November 2022, beginning an ongoing inspection, based on sources from the Ministry of Labour and Social Financial system.
The authorities are wanting into whether or not the working hours of the workers are literally longer than what seems on their data.
Like in the remainder of the European Union, Spanish regulation limits the variety of hours an worker might be anticipated to work.
‘Work took up 80% of my time’
When he discovered he had landed a job as an analyst on the Valencia workplace of Deloitte, Enrique Martin knew instantly he must work as a lot as he may.
“I knew I was applying for a very demanding, dynamic position, and I was aware I would have to make a huge effort. Consulting is known for having to work a lot,” he says.
Like Padilla, he found it became normal to work overtime, sometimes doing 12 hours a day. This continued for nine months, from 2020 to 2021, until his contract ended.
“My life was just work, then I got used to it. I didn’t realise it, but from Monday to Thursday, 80% of the time I was in the office,” he says.
Sources from the Labour Ministry say this is a specific case because it is the first time the Big Four are being investigated in the country — so there’s no precedent.
At this time, the investigators are reviewing all of the companies’ contracts to check that everything is in order, including the provisions on mandatory social security payments.
Marathon workdays and record profits
Spain’s consulting sector has seen major fatigue in the workforce caused by employers, according to Raúl de la Torre from Comisiones Obreras, a Spanish trade union.
“A few months ago they wanted to include in the (collective) agreement that we had to work up to 12 hours a day from Monday to Saturday, without any additional compensation. We launched a campaign on social media that led to the first strike in the sector,” he says.
This caught the attention of authorities. “It has been an official action, no complaint has been filed. Inspectors detect practices that they consider may be outside the scope of labour law, through the press or social media, and act,” the ministry said in a statement.
For de la Torre, working conditions have only worsened since 2008, while companies have reported record profits. In 2021, they made €2.5 billion during the fiscal year, according to figures collected by the newspaper Expansión.
“The maximum duration of the working day is not respected, the rest period required by law is not respected, and the pay gets worse by each day,” says De la Torre.
“We have copies of the contracts in the sector and there are people working in Madrid who earn €14,000 a year.”
Though the prices of residing in Madrid may not be as excessive as in different European capitals like Paris or London, this determine was solely barely above half of the median family earnings for Spain in 2021 and significantly under what would represent a habitable wage within the nation’s capital.
The union is anxious in regards to the equality plans they’re negotiating with the corporate. They marvel what is perhaps the purpose of committing to making use of a collection of reconciliation measures when workers don’t have any alternative however to work 12, 14 and even 16 hours a day.
“It’s impossible to reconcile like this,” says de la Torre.
Catapults and stepping stones
Though worker expectations have modified in recent times concerning advantages and dealing situations, each Padilla and Martín level out that marathon workdays are utterly normalised within the ‘Big Four’.
“In 2008, with the crisis, if there was a job available, we had four people looking for it. It has been ingrained in people’s minds that we have to be very grateful for the job,” says de la Torre.
That is added to the truth that most of the new recruits on the massive consulting corporations are current graduates.
In keeping with the newest report revealed by the Spanish Affiliation of Consulting Firms, 29% of the brand new contracts made by these corporations in 2021 had been for contemporary graduates who nonetheless had no work expertise.
Younger folks see this sacrifice as a solution to catapult their careers.
“Most are working at the company for a couple of years with the goal of getting one of the clients to hire them. What they are looking for is to become known (in the professional circles), to get better conditions and a higher salary,” says Martín.
That is corroborated by the LinkedIn profiles of ex-employees normally working for the ‘Massive 4’ corporations for a median of fewer than two years. In different massive corporations, the typical is extra like seven years.
“These companies claim to hire 5,000 people a year, but the real reason they hire so many people is because the staff can’t take it and they leave,” says de la Torre.
As that is the primary time that giant consulting corporations are being investigated, it isn’t identified how a lot the potential fines may quantity to. What is thought is that they concern the end result of the investigation.
“Many times, it’s not only the fine, but also the liquidation files that are relevant. What’s really big for the company is that they not only have to pay for all the overtime of each employee, but also to contribute for them,” sources from the Labour Ministry say.
Nonetheless, for the spokesman of Comisiones Obreras, this isn’t sufficient. “The mildest fines are ridiculous. Giving a company a €7,500 fine for not properly registering working hours and forcing people to do overtime is profitable,” de la Torre says.
“The problem is that the Labour Inspection has to monitor thousands of companies, and there are relatively few inspectors. They should give them significantly more resources,” he says.
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