Horse Powertrain Spain Collective Agreement 2025-2026: Reduced Working Hours and Key Labor Issues

Key data

Horse Powertrain Spain, SL —a company in the propulsion systems sector— has had its own company collective agreement in force since January 1, 2025, although its official publication in the BOE occurred on August 4, 2026 through the Resolution of the General Labor Directorate. The agreement regulates the working conditions of all staff and establishes, among other aspects, an annual working hours significantly lower than the legal maximum.

What does this regulation establish?

The collective agreement of Horse Powertrain Spain, SL is a company agreement —not sectoral— that regulates the working conditions of all its staff. Its main elements are:

• Annual working hours: 1,681.75 hours, compared to the 1,826.45 hours established by the Workers' Statute as the legal maximum. The difference is 144.70 annual hours per worker.
• Scope of application: All current and future work centers of Horse Powertrain Spain, SL.
• Validity: From January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2026, with annual tacit renewal if none of the parties denounces it.
• Negotiating unions: Union sections of CC.OO., SCP and UGT.
• Joint Monitoring and Interpretation Committee: Parity body to resolve doubts regarding the application and interpretation of the agreement.
• Extrajudicial conflict resolution: The agreement includes mechanisms to resolve conflicts outside the judicial system, streamlining the management of labor disputes.
• Personal guarantees: More favorable conditions that workers may have on an individual basis are respected.
• Absorption of legal improvements: Improvements resulting from legal changes may be absorbed by the conditions already agreed in the agreement, avoiding duplications.
• Regulation for promotion of initiative and creativity: Valid until December 31, 2026, it regulates internal mechanisms to foster innovation among staff.

Economic and operational impact

The reduction of 144.70 annual working hours per worker compared to the legal maximum has direct consequences for production planning and labor costs:

• Higher cost per effective hour worked: If the annual salary remains constant and hours are reduced, the cost per effective hour increases. This must be reflected in productivity calculations and product pricing.
• Need for adjusted shift planning: With fewer hours available per worker per year, the company must ensure that production coverage is not compromised, especially during periods of high demand.
• Absorption clause: Any improvement introduced by the legislator (for example, a legal reduction of working hours to 37.5 hours per week) may be absorbed by what has already been agreed, which protects the company from automatic additional costs.
• Personal guarantees: Workers with conditions superior to those of the agreement maintain them, which can generate internal wage heterogeneity that must be managed carefully.
• Tacit renewal: If the agreement is not denounced before December 31, 2026, it is automatically renewed year after year, which provides stability but can also perpetuate conditions that may want to be renegotiated.

Who does it affect?

• Horse Powertrain Spain, SL: The company as employer, at all its current work centers and those it may open in the future.
• All staff of Horse Powertrain Spain, SL: All workers linked to the company, regardless of their category or work center.
• HR and operations departments: Responsible for adapting working hours planning, shifts and payroll to the agreed working hours of 1,681.75 annual hours.
• Finance management and CFOs: To recalculate labor cost per hour and its impact on margins and budgets.
• Union representatives (CC.OO., SCP, UGT): As part of the Joint Monitoring and Interpretation Committee.

Practical example

Suppose Horse Powertrain Spain has a production worker with a gross annual salary of €30,000. With the maximum legal working hours of 1,826.45 hours, the cost per effective hour would be approximately €16.42/hour. With the working hours agreed in the collective agreement of 1,681.75 hours, that same cost per effective hour rises to approximately €17.84/hour, an increase of 8.6% in hourly cost without the gross salary having changed.

Multiplied across the entire workforce, this differential must be incorporated into production cost models and price setting. Furthermore, if in 2027 the agreement is tacitly renewed due to no denunciation before December 31, 2026, these conditions will remain in force without the need for new negotiation.

What should companies do now?

1. Verify time tracking: Ensure that the working hours control system reflects the maximum of 1,681.75 annual hours agreed, not the 1,826.45 legal hours. Unjustified excess can lead to claims for overtime.
2. Update contracts and annexes: Review that contracts for new hires and working hours annexes correctly reference the collective agreement working hours.
3. Recalculate labor cost per hour: Update production cost models with the new effective hourly cost resulting from the reduced working hours.
4. Establish or activate the Joint Committee: Ensure that the Joint Monitoring and Interpretation Committee is operational to resolve any doubts regarding the application of the agreement without needing to resort to judicial proceedings.
5. Plan agreement denunciation if applicable: If the company or unions wish to renegotiate conditions for 2027, they must denounce the agreement before December 31, 2026 to avoid tacit renewal.
6. Review personal guarantees: Identify which workers have conditions superior to those of the agreement to correctly manage wage heterogeneity and avoid conflicts.

Official source

Consult complete regulation in official source

Notice: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific decisions, consult a qualified professional. Source: https://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-2026-16990