Co-responsibility and its complex fit within the right to adjust working hours under art. 34.8 of the Worker Estatute

Abstract

This paper examines the right to adapt working hours in all its forms and aspects, as regulated in Article 34.8 of the Spanish Workers’ Statute. To this end, it analyses this right in relation to the right to co-responsibility (and not merely the conciliation of work and family life) regulated in Directive 2019/1158 and its transposition into Spanish labor law. Furthermore, it analyses in detail the content of this right, from its purpose and different possibilities, to its entitlement, the justifiable reasons for exercising it, the procedure for exercising it, and the return to the initial situation. In this regard, it analyses the importance of collective bargaining as an instrument for guaranteeing co-responsibility and its effective exercise in the employment relationship.