The 37.5-hour working week in Spain: where the law stands and how an SME should prepare

Few labour measures have made as much noise in Spain as the 37.5-hour working week. It was announced as the big reform of 2025, filled the headlines and ended up in Congress with an outcome many people are still unclear about. This article explains where it really stands as of 15 September 2026, what remains in force for your company, which collective agreements already apply 37.5 hours or less, what has changed in the public sector and, above all, what an SME needs to do to adapt schedules, shifts and time records the day the reduction arrives, whether by law or by agreement.

What happened to the 37.5-hour law

In 2025 the Spanish Government approved a bill to reduce the maximum legal working week from 40 to 37.5 hours with no pay cut. On 10 September 2025 the Congress of Deputies upheld the amendments rejecting the bill as a whole and refused to process it, so it dropped out of the parliamentary calendar. Since then nothing has been published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) about the reduction to 37.5 hours and, at the time of writing, no new vote is scheduled.

This has two practical consequences:

• The maximum legal working week is still the one in article 34.1 of the Workers’ Statute: 40 hours of effective work per week on average over the year. Nobody is legally obliged to reduce it.
• The reduction is real wherever a collective or company agreement sets it. Many sector and company agreements already set 37.5 hours a week or less, and the companies covered apply it regardless of what happened in Congress.

What has changed: 35 hours in Spain’s central government

While the private-sector reduction stalled, the public sector moved on its own. The Resolution of 14 April 2026 of the Secretary of State for the Civil Service, published in the BOE on 15 April, sets the general working time of staff in the General State Administration and its public bodies at 35 hours a week of effective work on an annual basis, equivalent to 1,533 hours a year, in force from 16 April 2026 and with one month to adapt calendars and time-tracking systems. It applies to civil servants and public-sector employees of central government, not to private companies, but it sets a reference that private-sector agreements will have in front of them in the next round of bargaining.

The digital time record: the other pending reform

The working-time reduction came bundled with a reform of the working-time record, which the Government decided to process separately as a Royal Decree under article 34.9 of the Workers’ Statute. That decree will require a digital, tamper-proof record accessible remotely by the Labour Inspectorate. As of 15 September 2026 it has still not been published in the BOE: the Council of State issued an unfavourable opinion on 23 March 2026 and the Ministry of Labour announced on 9 September that it would approve it “immediately”, without a date. We explain its technical requirements in our guide to the new digital clock-in rules and the fines in the table of time-tracking penalties.

What matters for an SME is that the two reforms are connected: without a reliable working-time record you cannot prove you comply with a 37.5-hour week, or a 40-hour one.

What changes in an SME when the week drops to 37.5 hours

Whether the reduction comes by law or by agreement, the operational effects are the same. Going from 40 to 37.5 hours is 2.5 hours less a week, half an hour a day on a five-day week.

• Pay. The reduction comes with no pay cut, both in the rejected bill and in the practice of collective agreements. The hourly wage goes up.
• Annual computation. Working time is measured as an annual average, so the company’s working calendar has to be recalculated: annual hours, irregular distribution where the agreement allows it, and hours banks.
• Overtime. Anything above the new ordinary working time becomes overtime, with its annual cap and compensation. If the company keeps 40-hour schedules, it will generate overtime every week without meaning to.
• Part-time contracts. Their hours are defined in proportion to a comparable full-time worker (article 12 of the Workers’ Statute). With full time at 37.5 hours, a 30-hour contract goes from 75 % to 80 %, and you need to check how the reduction applies to those contracts under your agreement.
• Shifts and rosters. In hospitality, retail, industry or healthcare, half an hour less a day means redoing rosters or reorganising service coverage. It is the costliest change to manage and the one most worth simulating in advance.
• Working-time record. The record must reflect the new ordinary working time so that deviations show, and it is the evidence for the Inspectorate that the reduction is applied.

How to prepare now, without waiting for the BOE

1. Read your collective agreement. Check the annual and weekly hours it sets, whether it allows irregular distribution, and what it says about overtime and rest periods. You may already be at 37.5 hours or below.
2. Measure actual working time. With the last few months of time records you will know how much each team really works, how much overtime you generate and where it concentrates. Without data, any reorganisation is a gamble.
3. Simulate rosters with the new hours. Design shifts on 37.5 hours and check whether coverage holds or you need to hire hours. We have a guide on how to create a shift schedule and another on how to create work schedules.
4. Review part-time contracts. Work out what percentage they represent against the new full time and what your agreement says.
5. Update the working calendar and communicate it. The annual working calendar is mandatory and must be displayed in a visible place at the workplace.
6. Configure the software. Ordinary hours, rest rules, shifts and overtime alerts must reflect the new scenario on the day it takes effect, not weeks later.

How LapsoWork helps you adapt

LapsoWork does not change your working hours, but it turns changing them into a configuration tweak rather than a project:

• Shift configuration: flexible, rotating, split or block schedules, with rest rules per collective agreement. When the week moves to 37.5 hours, you change the rule and the rosters are recalculated.
• Working-time reports: effective hours, overtime, breaks and deviations, filtered by site, team or employee. They serve to measure before the change and to prove compliance afterwards.
• Tamper-proof, exportable record: every clock-in is timestamped and the record exports as audited PDF and CSV for the Labour Inspectorate, which is what the pending Royal Decree demands.
• Multi-site and multi-agreement: several sites with different calendars in the same account, useful when the reduction reaches one agreement before another.

All from €2 per employee per month with the time tracking software and the shift scheduling module on the Advanced plan. See the details on our pricing page.

Frequently asked questions

Is the 37.5-hour working week in force in Spain?

No. Congress refused to process the bill on 10 September 2025 and no rule reducing the maximum legal working week has been published in the BOE. It remains 40 hours a week on average over the year, under article 34.1 of the Workers’ Statute. The reduction applies only where a collective agreement or a company agreement sets it.

Can my company already have a 37.5-hour week?

Yes, if your collective agreement or an internal agreement establishes it. Many sector and company agreements have set 37.5 hours a week or less for years. Check the annual and weekly hours in your agreement before assuming you are on 40 hours.

Does the civil servants’ 35-hour week affect private companies?

Not directly. The Resolution of 14 April 2026 sets a 35-hour week for staff of the General State Administration and its bodies, effective from 16 April 2026. It does not amend the Workers’ Statute or bind private companies, although it serves as a reference in collective bargaining.

If working hours are reduced, is pay reduced too?

No. Both the rejected bill and the usual practice of collective agreements establish the reduction without loss of pay. The result is that the hourly wage increases and any hour worked above the new ordinary working time becomes overtime.

What about the digital working-time record?

It is a separate reform, processed by the Government as a Royal Decree. As of 15 September 2026 it has still not been published in the BOE, after the Council of State’s unfavourable opinion of 23 March 2026 and the Ministry of Labour’s announcement on 9 September that it would be approved immediately. When it takes effect it will require a digital, tamper-proof record accessible remotely by the Inspectorate.

Conclusion

The 37.5-hour working week is not in force by law and has no date, but it is already the reality of many collective agreements and the benchmark for the next negotiations, with central government on 35 hours since April 2026. For an SME the sensible path is to measure actual working time, simulate rosters on the new hours and keep a working-time record that will stand up to an inspection, so that the change, when it comes, is an adjustment and not a crisis. To start with the data, try LapsoWork free for 30 days.