Workers and businesses in Spain are being told they could wait up to four years for employment disputes to reach court, it has emerged.
Labour hearings are now being scheduled for late 2029 and early 2030 in Elche, while lawyers in Madrid and Granada have reported similarly severe delays.
The mounting backlog affects some of the most sensitive cases handled by Spain’s courts, including contested dismissals, unpaid wages, disability disputes and Social Security benefits.
For workers, the delays can mean years without a decision on income or employment rights.
For autonomos and small companies, they can leave the eventual cost of dismissals and salary claims hanging over the business until the end of the decade.
Elche hearings scheduled for 2030
UGT-Justicia says Elche’s labour courts are now giving some claimants hearing dates at the end of 2029 or beginning of 2030.
Between 4,300 and 4,600 claims are reportedly entering the local system each year, with more than 500 new cases registered in August alone.
The union has demanded an urgent rescue plan and additional court staff.
Madrid and Granada also affected
The Madrid Bar Association has warned that some labour proceedings in the capital have already been scheduled for 2030.
It says delays are affecting virtually every stage of the process, including the initial handling of claims, judgments, appeals and enforcement.
In Granada, the local Bar Association reported in July that it had received complaints about hearings being set for 2029, particularly within the labour courts.
Spain’s judicial authorities have acknowledged that delays extend far beyond isolated problem areas.
The president of the General Council of the Judiciary, Isabel Perello, said this month that Spain’s courts lacked the capacity to absorb all the cases entering the system.
Almost 4.7 million cases were still unresolved at the end of 2025, an annual increase of 3.4%, while some hearings across the wider justice system were already being scheduled for 2030.
Dismissal cases taking more than a year
A study by the legal services of the CCOO union, based on more than 1,000 cases across 41 provinces, found that the average wait for a labour hearing was 450 days, or around 15 months.
Even individual dismissal disputes, which are legally supposed to receive priority, took an average of 375 days to reach court.
Claims involving Social Security benefits faced an average delay of almost 390 days.
Those figures cover only the wait for the initial hearing. Appeals and difficulties enforcing the eventual judgment can extend the dispute considerably further.
The cost for small businesses
A large company may be able to absorb the uncertainty created by a long-running employment dispute. For an autonomo or small business, it can affect everyday decisions and threaten financial stability.
A contested dismissal or unpaid-wage claim does not disappear while the hearing remains pending.
The business must preserve records, continue paying for legal advice and prepare for a potential liability whose final value may remain unknown for years.
The delay can also make cases harder to prove. Documents may become more difficult to locate, witnesses may move away and former employees can lose contact with the company.
Business owners may consequently postpone recruitment, investment or restructuring because they do not know how much an unresolved dispute will eventually cost.
Demand has also continued to grow. Between 2015 and 2025, cases entering Spain’s labour jurisdiction reportedly increased by 25%.
Dismissal proceedings rose by 17%, while claims involving fundamental rights almost doubled.
Bar associations and unions are now demanding more judges, court officials and administrative resources, warning that the ability to obtain a ruling within a reasonable time is being seriously undermined.
