Among the activities of FIL Pensamientos was included the talk “Work to live or live to work?”, in order to reflect on productivity and human needs. The Second Vice President of the Government of Spain and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz Pérez, participated in the debate; the Deputy Secretary General of Trade Union Policy of the General Union of Workers (UGT) of Spain, Fernando Luján de Frías; and the master in economics from El Colegio de México, Axel Eduardo González Gómez; moderated by the sociologist from the University of Guadalajara, teacher Paloma Villagómez.
The presentation of the panel was made by the General Rector of the UdeG, Dr. Ricardo Villanueva Lomelí: “It is urgent to debate the role that leisure and free time play in the search for a better quality of life, as well as the responsibilities that companies, governments and working people must assume, to have a better future in a world increasingly automated.”
Paloma Villagómez expressed that the need to talk about time, the condition of life and work is born from a global questioning that is concerned about improve productivity, quality of life and provide a greater distribution of leisure to the population so that “their life is not just work.”
Yolanda Díaz Pérez shared that the debate over the reduction of working hours is an issue that afflicts everyone, it is “the debate of our era.” He added that it is not only an economic problem, but also a social, public health, class and gender problem, since working conditions and time are not the same for everyone and are not structured based on the same parameters.
They highlighted that The proposed changes to working hours not only increase production, but also help reduce the carbon footprint, balance care work, as well as mental health, and make companies more creative.
Finally, Eduardo González spoke about the inequalities of the Mexican market, the way in which issues related to home and care are of greater burden for women, which is why they tend to be inequitable and there is a lack of policies that contribute to this.
He added that: “Productivity depends on the amount of resources we are using, and in that sense we are using a very large number of work hours for the product obtained; “We must take advantage of technological resources to be more efficient and help to be more creative in the business sector.”
