The pressure from the Labor Inspection on compliance with the working day and breaks is gaining strength. According to the ITSS 2024 Report, last year 35,500 actions were carried out regarding working time that led to 9,500 requirements and 11,945 infractions, with proposed penalties of 15,210,437 euros. In the focus of that campaign, overtime motivated 3,148 actions and 986 infractions, for 2,026,913.50 euros. In addition, the specific line of day registration totaled 9,097 actions and 1,869 infractions, with fines of 2,990,241.60 euros.
The intensification is not new, since since 2016, an instruction from the Inspection Directorate reinforced this control, unifying the campaigns in 2017 under the umbrella of “working time and legal limit of overtime.” In 2024, violations in this matter represented 47.8% of the total detected in labor relations, ahead of the violation of contract regulations (16.7%) or salaries and settlements (8.9%).
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The reduction of the working day returns to Congress and this time they ask to lower it to 35 hours per week through the BNG
A Spanish woman who works in a bank in Switzerland: “Really, the 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. job that everyone sells is like 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Two more hours that they sneak in like no one wants it.”
The Government is now preparing a reform of the time register with which it intends to surface unpaid overtime hours not compensated with rest. The department headed by Yolanda Díaz has been emphasizing that the priority is to tackle non-compliance with working hours and precariousness linked to undeclared extensions. In parallel, the ITSS will maintain specific campaigns in 2025 to reinforce this front, according to its internal planning.
Beyond the signing, the Report shows other measures to enforce the law. In 2024, a crash plan against fraud in part-time contracts was activated, in which 41,987 days were extended (29,001 for the plan and 12,986 for the ordinary action) to adjust them to the hours actually worked. In addition, progress was made against irregular temporary contracts: 77,787 temporary contracts became permanent with the combination of that plan and ordinary activity.
The salary chapter also offers a thermometer of conflict. The specific campaign on salaries and remuneration conditions closed 2024 with 25,506 actions (all matters linked to that campaign), 5,524 requirements and 3,408 violations for 10.84 million euros, to which are added 28,298 actions strictly related to salaries, receipts and settlements, with 2,225 violations and 10.56 million in sanctions.
The reinforcement of the inspectorate is also noticeable on other sensitive fronts. In illegal transfer of workers, 1,564 actions and 282 violations were carried out, with 4.93 million in proposed sanctions; in labor intermediation, 336 actions on ETT and 51 on placement agencies.
This report leaves two ideas, in which, on the one hand, the control of the working day is today the main source of violations in labor relations and, on the other hand, the recording of working hours is revealed as a useful tool to objectify compliance and uncover unpaid extensions. Now, the key will be whether the new regulation makes it possible to close the gap between the hours worked and those declared, in a market where the labor statistics themselves point to a relevant volume of unpaid overtime. While the text is finalized, the ITSS will continue to push with specific campaigns and data cross-checks that, judging by the figures, are already having an impact.