Spain: social partners discuss raising limit on overtime 

The social partners’ recent negotiations regarding the reduction of working hours from 40 to 37.5 hours a week provided an opportunity to raise the issue of overtime. Under Spanish law, overtime is limited to 80 hours a year and must be worked voluntarily, unless otherwise stipulated in the collective agreement. In reality, labour force surveys show that almost half of overtime is not declared. Such hours are not paid and therefore do not give rise to any social contributions. The idea, therefo