Companies know that, as a general rule, granting a right to a group of workers leads to the same being claimed by those in a similar range. This logic applies even more strongly in the public sector, where the employer bosses are politicians who face the polls at least every four years. Hence, the approval of the 35-hour workweek in the General State Administration (AGE), sealed in the Official State Gazette this Wednesday, is a very strong argument for civil servants who still work more hours, 37 and a half. In 40% of the autonomous communities and the same proportion of large municipalities, the 35 hours do not apply, a situation that unions want to change. And they are already taking steps to achieve this goal.
Read more This is how to get papers in Spain: «It has changed my life»
Rosa Robledano, from UGT Madrid, explains that her union has already sent a letter to the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso to demand the application of the 35 hours in the regional administration. “Now that they have been approved, they have no arguments to reject the change. We already had the 35 hours when Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón presided over the community, with the same party as now (PP). It would simply be recovering them,” says the deputy general secretary of the public area of the union at the regional level. “A community that boasts about its economic figures can afford to apply a measure that has been in force for many years in other autonomous communities,” adds Robledano.
Besides Madrid, the 35 hours have not been legally established for regional civil servants in Galicia, the Valencian Community, Navarra, the Balearic Islands, and Catalonia. In the latter, one of the CSIF leaders, Rafael Sánchez, insists on Robledano’s line: “We don’t understand why it is not applied here, when Catalonia is, in theory, a leading community.” Also part of CSIF, but in the Valencian Community, is Ezequiel Archilla: “It is evident that the underfunding of the Valencian Community makes the 35 hours difficult. It is a measure that requires extra hiring of staff to maintain public services,” he says. He adds that, once the state agreement is published in the BOE, they will demand it “in all the conselleries of the Valencian Community.”
The situation is a bit different in the other regions that have not yet established the 35 hours by law for their civil servants. Carlos Torrens, from CC OO in the Balearic Islands, explains that, although the regional government has not yet consolidated the 35 hours, “in practice they are already being done, that is the day-to-day reality.” “In 2025 we signed a legislative agreement to implement the 35 hours. It is pending execution, it is not yet a legal reality, but it is already applied in many departments,” details this union official.
“The Xunta has always said that until the State applied the 35 hours, they would not do it. That is why we are demanding it now,” adds Irene Martínez, general secretary of UGT Public Services in Galicia. She explains that there are areas where 35 hours are already worked, such as public health services, but not in the general regional administration. “We will manage to transfer them,” she adds.
The other region without the 35 hours for the majority of regional civil servants is Navarra. “Our workday is mainly 36 and a half hours. In recent years, the priority in negotiations has been the salary part, after the cuts of previous years,” concedes Patxi Larumbe, coordinator of the Public Area of CC OO in Navarra. He defends that they are already demanding the 35 hours: “We will ask for it, especially considering that the government here has the same political affiliation as the central administration.”
And the municipalities?
The 35 hours are also not contemplated in four out of ten large municipalities, according to a recent count by this newspaper. This leaves a great margin for improvement, with 40% of large corporations that can take the General State Administration agreement as a reference. Among them are Valencia, Málaga, Palma, Alicante, Vitoria, A Coruña, Albacete, Castellón, or Salamanca.
Read more ICE detains an 86-year-old French woman three months after her American husband passed away
In recent weeks, there has been a heated labor debate about the possibility that the reduction of the workday in AGE could serve as a legal argument to cut working hours in many municipalities. The union logic, recently explained by CC OO in a press release, is that the local regime base law establishes in its article 94 that “the working day of local administration officials shall be annually the same as that set for officials of the State Civil Administration; the same rules on equivalence and reduction of working hours shall apply to them.”
The Ministry of Public Function rejects this interpretation and assures that other subsequent regulations annul this possibility. The resolution published this Wednesday in the Official State Gazette supports this view, as in its article 15 it states: “The general working day provided in the new wording of these instructions shall not apply to local entities or other administrations, which shall be governed subsidiarily by the general working day provided by the one hundred and forty-fourth additional provision of Law 6/2018, of July 3, on the General State Budgets for 2018.” And the working day detailed in that text is 37 and a half hours.
Given this scenario, unions warn that they will fight for the 35 hours at every negotiation table of each municipal corporation. The three main public function unions (UGT, CSIF, and CC OO) are already encouraging their delegates to demand the reduction of working hours in their municipalities. CSIF says in a statement released after the publication of the resolution that, if necessary, it will take legal measures to ensure that the 35-hour workweek reaches local corporations.
Juan José Regatos, general secretary of the Local Administration Sector of CC OO, explains that they have prepared a model letter for CC OO representatives in each municipality demanding the convening of the general negotiation table, the negotiation of work calendars, and that the new scheme be set in collective agreements. Likewise, his union has sent a letter to the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces demanding “to open a working table with the three major unions to establish the implementation of the 35 hours in a coordinated and negotiated manner in each local entity.”
According to the latest (from July 2025), the communities employ 1.93 million people; local administration 632,000; and the state, 540,800.
Read more Lula: “Trump has no right to get up in the morning and threaten a country”