Spain faces significant issue with unpaid overtime hours

In Spain, an analysis by the CCOO Economic Cabinet reveals that approximately 2.54 million overtime hours per week are neither paid nor compensated with rest. This volume of unpaid labor is equivalent to the full-time employment of roughly 68,000 workers. The report indicates that 436,000 individuals perform these uncompensated hours, averaging 5.8 additional hours per week per affected worker.

While Spanish law, specifically Royal Decree-Law 8/2019, mandates that all companies maintain a daily record of employee working hours, enforcement remains a challenge. Experts suggest that many companies do not maintain truthful or verifiable records, making it difficult for employees to prove actual time worked. The current regulations require companies to keep these records for four years and make them available to workers, legal representatives, and labor inspectors, yet the lack of a precise, effective system for accreditation has limited the reform's ability to reduce unpaid overtime.