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What it regulates
It regulates special working-time arrangements and includes health-protection limits for harmful exposures, agricultural work, mining, underground construction, compressed-air work and cold stores. This record selects those provisions and protection for night workers exposed to special risks. Working time is part of prevention, but does not replace hazard elimination or required technical and organisational controls.
Who it applies to
Chapter III, Articles 23–31, and Articles 32–33 in their preventive dimension. Other sectoral extensions and working-time arrangements are outside this record. Each limit requires checking the activity, actual working conditions and applicable collective-bargaining rules.
Key provisions
Exposure must be limited where ordinary working hours create a special health risk that cannot be eliminated or reduced through other suitable measures. The restriction applies to the affected jobs and for as long as the cause persists, without reducing pay.
Article 23For specified agricultural tasks involving exceptional effort or hardship from temperature or humidity, the limits are 6 h 20 per day and 38 h per week. The expressly described tasks involving feet in water or mud and open digging (cava abierta) have limits of 6 h and 36 h.
Article 24Effective underground mine work is limited to 35 h per week, subject to specific counting and collective-bargaining rules. Exceptional hardship or wet working conditions can require shorter daily limits in the cases defined by the article.
Article 25Underground workers and certain linked surface workers are entitled to two days of weekly rest. Collective bargaining may adapt how that rest is taken within the options expressly permitted.
Article 27Cold stores have temperature-dependent limits on time inside and recovery breaks. In the colder bands, maximum time inside is 6 h; the remainder of normal working hours may be worked outside the store. The article’s precise temperature scale must be applied.
Article 31Night work involving special risks or significant physical or mental strain must not exceed 8 h in each 24 h period containing night work, unless a shorter limit applies. The relevant work must be identified by collective agreement or agreement with worker representatives.
Article 33History and versions
Initial publication: 26/09/1995 · Initial entry into force: 27/09/1995
BOE-A-1995-21346Published on 26 September 1995 and in force from 27 September 1995. Articles 23–32 retain their original wording in the checked source. Royal Decree 311/2016 added Article 33 with effect from 31 July 2016. Other amendments, including transport and fishing provisions, remain in the source data but are not fully developed in this record’s history.
Initial text: preventive limits in Articles 23–32, published on 26 September 1995.
BOE-A-1995-21346Royal Decree 311/2016 introduces Article 33’s specific limit for night work involving special risks; publication 30 July 2016, effect 31 July 2016.
BOE-A-2016-7338Text versions of the selected OSH provisions
| Publication | Effective date | Official reference | Affected provisions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 26/09/1995 | 27/09/1995 | BOE-A-1995-21346 | Article 23, Article 24, Article 25, Article 26, Article 27, Article 28, Article 29, Article 30, Article 31, Article 32 |
| 30/07/2016 | 31/07/2016 | BOE-A-2016-7338 | Article 33 |
Transitional provisions and application notes
Simply labelling a job “arduous” is insufficient: Article 23 requires its stated conditions and provides for labour-authority intervention where there is disagreement.
Article 23The enhanced limit in Article 33 allows only the exceptions in Article 32.1.b and 32.1.c. Do not extend every general night-work exception to this case.
Article 33Underground construction work receives the same limits as underground mining only where the specified conditions are present. Compressed-air work is subject to a specific cross-reference in Article 30.
Article 29
Official BOE legal relationships
This record covers the history of the selected occupational safety and health provisions. The official analysis also provides the relationships affecting other subjects in the legislation.
Official BOE legal relationships
