In 2025, each Spanish worker performed 5.6 hours of unpaid overtime per week, according to an analysis presented this Monday by the CCOO economic team. This study concludes that €141 per week, equivalent to €7,355 per year, went unpaid in wages and social security contributions for employees due to this unpaid work. This represents 2.49 million unpaid overtime hours, affecting a total of 441,000 people, or 2.3% of the salaried population. In Catalonia, workers put in 495,000 hours of overtime each week, making it the second-highest autonomous community after Madrid (582,000 hours). In fact, Catalonia has 91,000 salaried workers who worked more hours per week than stipulated in their contracts for the same pay, also ranking second. Even so, in terms of the proportion of the total salaried workforce, it fell to fourth place, with 2.7% of Catalans working unpaid overtime. According to the CCOO union, using data from the Labor Force Survey (EPA) of the National Institute of Statistics (INE), there are 928,000 people who regularly worked more hours than agreed upon, without any data indicating that these hours were paid or subject to social security contributions. Within this figure, the report emphasizes, there are 568,000 workers with a 40-hour workweek who regularly worked more hours, "which, a priori, would violate labor legislation regarding working hours." The union estimates that the 2.49 million unpaid overtime hours averaged weekly in 2025 would equate to an annual labor cost of €3.243 billion that companies and public administrations failed to pay workers. This sum includes not only wages but also social security contributions and direct taxes that are no longer being collected by the Tax Agency. Education, the most affected sector

By sector, those with the highest volume of unpaid overtime were education (440,000 hours), transportation and storage (270,000), manufacturing (255,000), and retail (217,000). The teachers' union also has the most workers affected by this labor issue, with 72,000 people working more hours per week than agreed upon without any additional compensation. In contrast, if we look at the incidence, the electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply sector and the financial and insurance sector have the highest percentage of employees working unpaid overtime, at 5.6% in both cases. Education ranks third, with 4.9% of its employees in this situation. On the other hand, the sectors with the highest average intensity of unpaid overtime are transportation (8.3 hours), agriculture and livestock farming (7.1 hours), and construction (6.5 hours).

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On Friday, April 30, 2021, Chiqui had prepared a ColaCao and a cortado for her nephew Xavi and her son Carlos. At six in the morning, they were already leaving home for the factory, and, as always, she said goodbye to them from the doorway. A little later, she also headed to work. Around ten thirty, she received an unexpected visitor: it was Carlos, his face pale and sunken. "I stared at him and thought something had happened," Chiqui remembers. He took her hands and said, "Mom, Xavi had an accident at work and died."

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The new timesheet will require detailing, among other aspects, work breaks within the workday, as well as overtime and how they will be compensated, whether through rest time or pay. According to the draft royal decree The new register, which entered the public consultation phase this Thursday, must be digital in all companies and be "objective, reliable, and accessible." Therefore, it banishes the formula by which some workers still recorded their workday with pen and paper.

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An additional 554 inspectors and sub-inspectors will be added over the next two years, along with a laboratory to combat labor fraud. These are some of the initiatives included in the Ministry of Labor's strategy for the 2025-2027 period, approved by the Council of Ministers this Tuesday.

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The Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) have arrested the owner of a cleaning and waste management services company in Malgrat de Mar for labor exploitation, document falsification, and irregular hiring. The arrested man, a 47-year-old resident of Blanes, employed several workers without contracts and also employed some with other people's documentation. He imposed average working hours of 90 hours per week for only €850 per month. The Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) have also filed charges against three of his employees for the same offenses. The company provided services in several municipalities in the Barcelona and Girona regions, including Malgrat de Mar, Tordera, Santa Susanna, Vidreres, Maçanet de la Selva, and Fogars.

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High temperatures and heat waves are added risk factors for many workers who are exposed, whether outdoors or indoors. Furthermore, these phenomena are becoming more frequent and intense due to the climate emergency. This increases the possibility of a worker suffering a work-related accident or of a pre-existing condition worsening. Cristina Fernández, General of the Labor and Social Security Inspectorate (ITSS), spoke at a press conference this Wednesday. According to union data, work-related accidents due to heat stroke, heatstroke, or extreme temperatures affected 224 people in 2024.

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The Generalitat (Catalan government) has imposed a groundbreaking fine on the multinational Amazon for hiding the algorithms that monitor its employees, according to Cadena SER and confirmed by ARA. The fine was imposed because the company refused to reveal to employees the parameters used to operate the digital systems that measure productivity or distribute tasks at the logistics center in El Prat de Llobregat.

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In some from the videos on your Instagram profile He appears in front of a false background of green fields with a path leading up a hill. In others, he is seen sitting in his office with diplomas hanging on the walls while answering questions live. His name is Francisco Valverde García and he is a lawyer from Barcelona who has been reaching out to the community of riders to offer their services amid Glovo's shift towards the labor model. At the beginning of December last year – one day before its CEO, Oscar Pierre, testified in court in the criminal case against him – the company unexpectedly announced that 100% of its delivery drivers would become salaried employees.

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The Catalan Labor Inspectorate exceeded all its records in 2024 and broke a record for the amount of fines imposed on companies. A total of €49.4 million in fines was imposed, an increase of 7.7%, for the 13,265 violations committed throughout last year. This was explained by its general director, Laura Freixas, in her assessment of the actions of the body that oversees compliance with labor regulations. As many as 5,341 companies received one of the 11,786 complaints received by the Inspectorate.

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Catalonia's Labour Inspectorate has proposed a €3.2m fine for Amazon and a €2.6m fine for 17 companies subcontracted by the multinational, six of which are temporary employment agencies, for illegal transfer of workers. As reported on Thursday by the Department of Enterprise and Employment in a statement, it was found the companies had ceded 559 employees who worked in worse conditions than they would be entitled to had they been hired directly by Amazon.

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