Spain's snap election kills the 37.5-hour week and nine other labour bills outright
Spain goes to the polls on Sunday 29 November 2026. Real Decreto 806/2026, de 5 de octubre, dissolving the Congreso de los Diputados and the Senado and calling the election, was published in the BOE on 6 October: “Se convocan elecciones a ambas Cámaras, que se celebrarán el domingo 29 de noviembre de 2026.” The dissolution followed Congress rejecting the government’s two housing decrees on 2 October.
Dissolution does not pause legislation in passage. It ends it. Every bill that had not completed its parliamentary stages has lapsed, and cannot be revived by the incoming Congress – it has to be registered again from scratch. The casualties include the reduction of the maximum working week to 37.5 hours, the Estatuto del Becario governing internships, the dismissal reform intended to bring Spain into line with the European Social Charter, the update to the occupational risk prevention law, and the Ceuta and Melilla employer contribution rebates.
Why this matters. If you work in Spain on an employment contract, the 37.5-hour week is not coming in 2027. It had already failed once on the floor of Congress in 2025 and this ends the second attempt, so anyone planning around a shorter statutory week should assume the 40-hour maximum in Article 34 of the Estatuto de los Trabajadores stands indefinitely. The more immediate point is about everything still trailing: between now and the end of November, a Spanish labour-law announcement is a campaign position unless it is a Real Decreto, and the distinction decides whether it can actually happen.
Context. Two things the dissolution does not stop, because neither needs Congress. The digital time-tracking decree is being taken forward as a plain Real Decreto rather than a decreto-ley, so it requires no convalidación and the Ministry of Labour said on 2 October that it expects to take it to the Council of Ministers during October. It is not approved and not in the BOE; the obligation remains the existing daily record under Article 34.9. Setting the minimum wage is also a government power exercised by Real Decreto, and the advisory commission on the 2027 SMI was convened on 8 October with the stated intention of legislating before the election. The current SMI is 1,221 euros a month in 14 payments.
What to watch. The SMI, for a reason specific to this audience: the income threshold for Spain’s digital nomad visa is set at 200% of the SMI, so a 2027 minimum wage decree moves the visa requirement with it. The current floor is 2,849 euros a month. Nothing has been proposed yet, and no figure should be planned around until a Real Decreto appears. See our Spain country guide for the current requirements.