Alimerca, the leading supermarket chain in Asturias, has around 6,500 employees across Asturias, Galicia and Castilla y León. But since mid-October, they’ve all been working on a new calendar that the company imposed without a union’s signature. CCOO and UGT talk about right of deduction and company, time flexibility.
Labor conflicts have increased because, when some employees show their refusal, the chain does not leave and the situation of workers’ rest and compromise affects a large part of the workers, as reported by MiGijon.
From 5+2 to 6-5-6-5. Key: 5+2 is the calendar that workers have enjoyed until now: five days of work and two days off in a 37.5-hour week. Alimerca presents this as an improvement and implements it gradually. It arrived in Asturias less than a year ago.
6-5-6-5, however, works in four-week cycles: six days on and one off, five and two, six and one, five and two. A total of 22 working days and six days off. The difference, according to CCOO calculations:
|
Calendar |
28-day cycle with every day off |
A holiday every year |
|---|---|---|
|
5+2 |
8 |
104 |
|
06-08-09-2015 |
6 |
78 |
|
6-6-6-5 (first proposal) |
5 |
65 |
There are 26 days less holiday per year than 5+2. Unions add fewer Saturdays off and fewer long weekends.
How do we get here? In September, Alimerca opened the process to change working conditions. His first proposal, a 6-6-6-5 with a split shift, left 65 days free. The CCOO stated that it does not respect the 12-hour rest period between shifts. The second proposal, now without a split transfer, improves on the first. The union described it as inadequate.
On September 22, the consultation period ended without an agreement. The next day, a circular imposed 6-5-6-5 on the entire squad. Neither CCOO, UGT, USO nor FETICO signed To sum it up quickly, the union response has three fronts:
What does each part say? Alimerca defends a more flexible model, which guarantees sufficient staff throughout opening hours and covers gaps during peak hours. This is a model that, as far as we know, does not exist in other local supermarket chains such as Froze, Gadis or Coviran.
According to the CCOO, management also links client losses to 5+2, but the union rejects that reading. Unions say they are not asking for anything new, but to protect what has already been achieved. They note that the sector is very female-dominated and working long hours can be very difficult to accommodate. For workers, the way is to hire more people, not to squeeze ordinary people.
In the forum, users add another lesson: more turnover, contracts for those who do not know the store, very young employees. These are of course impressions, not template census data.
What the law says and what the Supreme Court has ruled. The Workers’ Statute establishes two different breaks. Section 34.3 takes 12 hours from the end of one day to the beginning of the next day. Article 37.1 guarantees one and a half days a week, cumulative for a period of up to 14 days: 36 hours.
The question was whether they add or overlap. Many companies put 12 hours at 36. The Supreme Court responded in its judgment of 12 March 274/2026. Case: An ordinance from a museum in Ciudad Real, changing 14 days and weeks to 49 hours. Their contract guarantees 48 hours of weekly rest and the calendar absorbs 12 hours a day. The Supreme Court, supported by the European Working Time Directive and a 2023 CJEU judgment, ruled that both breaks are autonomous rights and accumulation. The result: 60 hours straight, not 48.
With the minimum statute, the sum would be 12 plus 36: 48 hours. This figure is not written into law as such: it is Supreme Court doctrine, applied to a specific contract. And it doesn’t prove that 6-5-6-5 violates it. But in addition to discussing the legal minimum, the conflict in the national court asks to restore the 5+2.
What’s coming now? National courts must rule because, furthermore, there is no treaty in sight. Tomorrow, October 29th, the Gijon slaughterhouse on November 8th and the Oviedo strike on the 11th are signed. It is worth recalling that in 2019, the CCOO, UGT and USO called an eight-day strike in the middle of Christmas. By the end of 2025, unions have demanded additional working hours, including about 200 individual demands. We will see how it develops in this particular. I will update the article when I have new information.
Picture | Flickr
In Xataka | The Supreme Court affirmed this: Workers shall be entitled to a minimum of one and a half days of uninterrupted rest per week
In Xataka | If you eat at work, it won’t be worth it to the company: if they interrupt you during your lunch break, they have to pay for it.
