Overtime hours in Spain in 2017 cost companies €3.11 billion, an increase of 9.4% compared to 2016 and the highest figure since €3.69 billion in 2008, according to data from Randstad Spain.

The data follows a report published last month which showed that Spanish employees worked nearly 147 million overtime hours in 2017, an increase of 9.8% compared to the previous year.

For the report, Randstad took into account the volume of paid overtime hours made by Spanish workers (147 million), as well as the labour cost of overtime hours for companies, which is between €17 and €28, depending on the region where they carry out their activity. On average this figure was €21.22, a decrease of 0.4% compared to 2016.

Randstad’s data also found that overtime hours in Spain in 2017 cost companies the equivalent of hiring more than 101,850 employees during a year.

Luis Pérez, Director of Institutional Relations at Randstad, warned about the ‘excessive use of overtime’ and said that temporary work contracts could be more efficient.

"Overtime is a tool to adjust production levels to a specific increase in workload, and thus meet the needs at a specific time,” Pérez said. “However, the excessive use of this mechanism causes a decrease in the productivity of employees, as well as other problems derived from work overload, such as increases in accident rates, or a decrease in the happiness of employees in the workplace, among others. The use of temporary contracts, or part-time work days, is a much more efficient tool to adapt to seasonal or specific production increases for companies. In this way they can expand their staff and improve their results without losing productivity, maintaining optimal working conditions for their workers.”