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WORKING IN SPAIN

Spain set to slash work week to 37.5 hours

Spanish Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz has said her ministry will soon reduce the working week by two and a half hours, a decision which will improve the work-life balance of 12 million employees across the country.

Published: 23 January 2024 10:56 CET
Spain set to slash work week to 37.5 hours
Spain's Minister of Labour and Social Economy Yolanda Díaz is spearheading the reduction of the week in the country. (Photo by JAVIER SORIANO / AFP)

Spanish Second Deputy Prime Minister and Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz has committed herself to introducing a reduction of the work week from 40 hours to 37.5 hours as a means of improving the work-life balance of Spain’s workforce and increasing productivity.

The head of hard-left Sumar intends to achieve this by reaching an agreement with Spanish work unions UGT and CCOO, while excluding Spain’s business associations from the negotiating table. 

“We are going to carry out a reduction in the working day to 37.5 hours per week without any salary reduction,” Díaz stressed on Monday.

“We’re going to try to reach an agreement, which I would like to be three ways; but if it cannot be, it will be two ways, but we’re going to get it done,” she stated about her intention to approve the new work week hours without the green light from business group CEOE. 

PSOE and Sumar, the two left-wing parties which form Spain’s new governing coalition, had the work week reduction as one of the key promises of their legislative pact, but Díaz had already proposed the idea when she headed the Labour Ministry during the previous government.

Two in every three Spaniards support the move, according to a survey by the 40db Institute conducted for El País and Cadena Ser. 

The 40-hour full-time work week was first brought into law in Spain in 1983.

A reduction of two and a half hours a week would equate to 30 minutes a day, in essence leaving work half an hour early.

The deal between PSOE and Sumar would see the progressive drop in weekly work hours be of 1.5 hours in 2024 (38.5 hours) and of 2.5 hours in 2025.

READ ALSO: What are my rights if I work extra hours in Spain?

According to Díaz’s estimates, 12 million contract workers in Spain’s private sector will benefit from the decision, by “improving the compatibility of work with other uses of time such as caring for loved ones, further education, leisure or socialising”. 

“There is sufficient technology, production models have changed,” Díaz argued.

Reacting to Díaz’s words, the president of Spain’s business association CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, said that “no one is saying that working hours cannot be reduced” but “not all sectors are the same, that’s why what we propose is that it be done sector by sector , at each negotiating table, which is how it has always been done”.

Earlier in January, Spain’s labour minister reached an agreement with the country’s unions to raise the minimum wage in 2024 by €54 per month over 14 payments, a measure which was also contested by business associations. 

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HEALTH

How many hours do I have to work to get access to public healthcare in Spain?

A common question among those wanting to move to Spain is if they will have access to the Spanish public healthcare system even if they only work part time or a few hours a week.

Published: 23 April 2024 10:57 CEST
How many hours do I have to work to get access to public healthcare in Spain?

In order to understand the answer to this question, you need to be aware of several rules on who has the right to public healthcare in Spain. 

In Spain, you have the right to access public healthcare under the following circumstances:

  • You are an employee or self-employed and are affiliated and registered with the social security system
  • You receive Spain’s state pension
  • You are the recipient of benefits, including unemployment benefits or subsidies.
  • You have exhausted your unemployment benefit or subsidy or other benefits of a similar nature and are unemployed and residing in Spain
  • Children under the age of 15
  • Students under the age of 26

You also have the right to healthcare if your spouse pays into the social security system or if you’re pregnant.

READ ALSO: Does permanent residency in Spain equal free public healthcare?

But what happens if you are an employee, but you only work part-time, does the number of hours you work affect whether you have the right to public healthcare coverage?

Even if you work part-time (or media jornada in Spanish), you will still be paying into the social security system automatically – part of it from your salary and part of it from your employer.

Therefore you will be affiliated in the social security system as in point one above. 

According to stats from Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE), a total of 6.6 percent of men in Spain in 2022 worked part-time and 21.6 percent of women. In September 2023, there were 2.9 million part-time employees in the country.

As far as social security is concerned, those who work part-time benefit the same as those working full-time when it comes to national healthcare, regardless of the length of their day. Part-time contributions count as one full day when it comes to paying social security.

READ ALSO: What to be aware of before accepting a part-time job in Spain

This rule, equating part-time work to full-time work was brought into force on October 1st 2023 in order to try and help reduce the gender pay gap in Spain, but was designed with the pension system in mind rather than national health coverage.

The advantage is that it also benefits those who want to work part-time and still be able to access healthcare. Even before this was brought into force, however, those working part-time and paying social security were still covered. 

All this means that there isn’t a specific number of hours you must work in order to be able to be covered under the Spanish healthcare system, and as long as you’re paying social security or fall into one of the categories above, you will be able to benefit from it.

Remember that if you’re not employed or self-employed in Spain and don’t have a spouse who is either, then you may not be covered.

To get around this you can either join a programme such as the S1 scheme for British pensioners or pay the convenio especial in order to benefit from public healthcare. For this, you will pay a monthly fee of €60 if you are under 65 and €157 if you are over 65. 

If none of these options are available to you or the requirements of your visa say so, then it’s necessary to get private health insurance instead.

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