A 24-hour general strike is scheduled for 11 November 2026. KPMG Abogados says employers cannot replace strikers or ask staff in advance whether they will join; necessary and safety services follow separate rules.
Workers who join the stoppage will have their contracts suspended for the time they are on strike, with the corresponding pay deducted. The 24-hour action is set for Wednesday 11 November, from midnight to midnight, although shift workers may be covered beyond those hours.
The call centres on access to adequate housing and purchasing power, including higher wages and the SMI. CCOO and UGT are seeking collective-agreement increases of 4% to 7% and at least a 7% rise in the statutory minimum wage for 2027, which would take it above €1,300 in 14 instalments. The 2026 SMI increase was 3.1%. The unions have also called for higher benefits and pensions and a greater share of company wealth to reach workers. A guide from KPMG Abogados spells out the rules employers must follow.
A coalition including CCOO, UGT, CGT, CNT, Co.Bas, Intersindical, the Confederation of Tenants’ Unions, the Union of Actors and Actresses, and Workers’ Solidarity registered the strike call with the Ministry of Labour on 19 October. By 26 October, more than 2,500 company committees had joined or supported the action, and around 2,000 CCOO and UGT delegates had attended a preparatory assembly in Getafe, Madrid. Congress rejected housing-related royal decree-laws on 2 October, and the unions are urging public institutions to revisit the measures.
At workplaces with multiple shifts, the strike starts with the first shift, even if it begins before midnight on 11 November. It ends when the final shift finishes, even if that is after midnight. Workers producing goods or services needed immediately on strike day will stop work on 10 November.
Employers cannot require staff to declare in advance whether they will strike or pressure them to reveal their decision. KPMG recommends preparing for different levels of absence without asking workers beforehand. Employers also cannot hire agency staff or bring in outside workers to maintain ordinary operations.
Managers cannot rearrange shifts, hours, duties or workplaces so non-strikers perform the work of those on strike, even if colleagues volunteer. The same restriction applies to extraordinary transfers of production to other sites or companies intended to weaken the stoppage. Ordinary automated systems may keep running. Using or intensifying them exceptionally to replace strikers may breach the right to strike. These limits do not remove the need for lawful minimum or safety services. A separate drivers’ stoppage previously halted Rodalies after heavy rain, as an earlier report described.
Minimum services protect necessary provision for the community. The government sets them through a reasoned and proportionate decision, and the employer implements that decision by designating the workers needed to comply. Safety and maintenance services serve a different purpose: protecting people and property, preserving facilities and allowing work to resume after the strike. They may be required at any company, but cannot be used to keep normal production going.
Employers must negotiate the scope of safety and maintenance work, along with the number and identity of those assigned, with workers’ legal representatives. If genuine negotiations fail or representatives refuse to cooperate, the employer may decide what is objectively necessary, subject to later judicial review. Workers validly assigned to these services must perform them. For minimum services, employers who cannot lawfully establish who will strike may use objective and random criteria to select staff.
A company cannot close its premises simply because a strike has been called. Workers who do not join must be allowed to enter and work. A lockout is allowed only in exceptional statutory circumstances, including a clear danger of violence or serious property damage. An illegal occupation, or a credible risk of one, is another ground. So is an absence level or disruption that gravely prevents normal production. The employer must notify the labour authority within 12 hours and keep the closure in place only as long as necessary to remove the cause or resume activity.
Informational pickets may provide information and seek to persuade peacefully. Threats and coercion fall outside that protection, as do violent acts or blockades that prevent others from exercising their right to work.
Pay deductions must be proportional to the time on strike and cover the salary components linked to that period. They cannot reduce holiday entitlement or holiday pay. During a full strike, workers remain in a special registration status with Social Security, and contributions are suspended. In a partial strike, they remain registered under the ordinary status, with contributions paid on earnings for time actually worked. Strike suspension does not create entitlement to unemployment benefits.
