Bill cuts workweek in Spain to 37.5 hours

A worker welds a section of the F-111 class frigate’s fuselage at a workshop in the Navantia shipyard in Ferrol, northern Spain, on April 10, 2025. —AP

MADRID, Spain — Workers in Spain may soon have 2.5 more hours of weekly rest.

The Spanish government approved a bill Tuesday reducing the workweek from 40 to 37.5 hours.

Twelve-and-a-half-million full-time and part-time private sector workers will benefit from the reduction, expected to improve productivity and reduce absenteeism, according to the Ministry of Labor.

“Today we are modernizing the world of labor and helping people to be a little happier,” said Vice President and Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz.

READ: Life-work balance

The measure, which already applies to civil servants and some sectors, will mainly affect the retail, manufacturing, hospitality and construction industries, Díaz added.

The parliament, where the left-wing coalition government doesn’t have enough votes, will have to approve the bill for it to come into effect.

Unions’ support

The main trade unions support the proposal, unlike the business association.

Sumar, the leftist minority partner of President Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist Party, proposed the bill.

The Catalan nationalist party Junts, an occasional ally of Sánchez’s coalition, expressed concern over what they said were the bill’s negative consequences for small companies and the self-employed.

Spain has had a 40-hour workweek since 1983, when it was reduced from 48 hours. /cb —AP