The Supreme Court of Spain upholds a law that requires employers to pay 10% interest on late payments.

IT is an all-too-common problem for many employees: waiting an age to finally receive your monthly salary – or perhaps never receiving it at all.

Article 29.3 in the Workers’ Statute protects workers from employers who fail pay wages to their employees on schedule. They are subject to 10% annual interest.

This law was upheld by the Supreme Court earlier this week. It ruled in favor of 33 physicians who filed a complaint against the Sant Joan de Deu Hospital located in Martorell, an area west of Barcelona.

The hospital will have to pay €183,166.96 in wages and €89,758.84 to the group of doctors, whose payslips between 2015 and 2019 failed to include night-shifts or extra weekend pay.

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Executives at the hospital, which specializes in pediatrics as well as gynecology & obstetrics tried to get out of paying by claiming it was an exception that did not require the 10% statutory interest.

An exception will apply if an employer is legally prohibited from making payment because of a binding public regulation such as a statute restricting salary increases for public institutions.

Leaders of hospitals claimed that public budget laws prevented payments to be made.

This argument was rejected by Supreme Court who stated that the legal spending limit does not mean you cannot pay your debts. Interest is therefore applied.

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