What are my rights at work?

Spain’s Workers’ Statute (Estatuto de los Trabajadores) sets minimum rights for employees, and collective agreements often add more. Here are the basics, including the changes that did and didn’t happen in 2025 and 2026.

Hours

The maximum ordinary working week is 40 hours of actual work, averaged over the year. Your collective agreement or contract can set fewer. Other rules:

• At least 12 hours between the end of one working day and the start of the next
• No more than 9 ordinary hours a day, unless an agreement sets a different pattern
• A break of at least 15 minutes when the working day is longer than 6 hours
• A weekly rest of at least a day and a half without a break, usually Saturday afternoon or Monday morning plus all of Sunday
• Overtime is voluntary unless your agreement or contract says otherwise. It is capped at 80 hours a year, and must be paid at least at your normal hourly rate or given back as paid time off. If nothing is agreed, it is time off within 4 months
• Your employer must keep a daily record of the time you start and finish (registro de jornada)

Holiday and public holidays

You get at least 30 calendar days of paid holiday a year (4 weeks and 2 days), and it can’t be swapped for money while you’re employed. The dates are agreed with your employer, and you must know them at least 2 months in advance. If you’re off sick during planned holiday, you can usually take it later.

There are up to 14 paid public holidays a year, of which 2 are local. Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, 1 May and 12 October are national everywhere; regions replace some others with their own. See Public holidays in Spain.

Paid leave for life events

Sick pay

When you are signed off by a doctor (incapacidad temporal), Social Security sick pay for an illness or injury not caused by work is 60% of your contribution base from day 4 to day 20, and 75% from day 21. The first 3 days aren’t covered by the state benefit. For a work accident or occupational illness it is 75% from the day after you stop work. Many collective agreements top this up, sometimes to full pay, so check yours.

Parental leave

Since Royal Decree-law 9/2025 of 29 July 2025, birth suspends the contract of each parent for 19 weeks, paid by Social Security:

• 6 weeks straight after the birth are compulsory and full-time
• 11 weeks can be taken in blocks of a week at any time until the child is 12 months old
• 2 weeks can be taken in weekly blocks until the child turns 8
• A single parent gets 32 weeks

You can also ask to adapt your hours or work from home to care for children up to 12 (or other dependants). The employer must negotiate for up to 15 days and give reasons in writing if it refuses.

Dismissal, notice and severance

Severance (indemnización) is worked out in days of salary per year of service, with part years counted by month.

Your digital rights

The Workers’ Statute and the data protection law (Ley Orgánica 3/2018) give you a right to digital disconnection (desconexión digital) outside working hours, and to privacy in your use of work devices and against video and location monitoring. Many employers set out how this works in an internal policy; ask for it.

Getting help

• Your collective agreement and your payslip (nómina) are the first things to check
• A union (sindicato), a labour lawyer (abogado laboralista) or a graduado social can advise you on your case
• The Labour and Social Security Inspectorate (Inspección de Trabajo y Seguridad Social, ITSS) investigates unpaid wages, missing social security registration, unpaid overtime and time-recording breaches. A formal complaint (denuncia) must name you, but inspectors must keep your identity confidential. You can file it online with a digital certificate or Cl@ve, in person, or by post
• The ITSS also has an anonymous online fraud mailbox. A message there isn’t a formal complaint and you won’t hear what happens

See Working in Spain for everyday workplace culture.