A few decades ago Spain was infamous for it’s inefficiency and extremely slow and corrupt bureaucracy.
Not so much anymore, Spain has come a long way since the 70’s.

Spain can of course “just” decide to work less, but I suppose the flip side could be the value generated could drop too.
Not necessarily, because to some degree shorter hours are somewhat recouped by higher efficiency and fewer mistakes.

PS:
Kudos to Spain for having a PM that stands up for Europe against USA. 😎 👍

This variable is inseparable from another labor statistic: the share of employees working part time. Countries with shorter hours are precisely those where a larger share of the labor market works part time.

So comparison like this are really a nothingburger. If you have more part-time workers, the average weekly working time goes down. Which basically means that this measures if mothers are staying at home full-time or return to the work-force in part-time.

You should work smart and not hard, though. An average Dutch worker is likely still more productive. It‘s all about output and efficiency, not hours clocked in. In the end of the day it‘s a question of infrastructure and worker rights.

The current government tried to pass a law to lower the full-time week to 37.5h but it didn’t pass. The Catalans voted against it. Thanks Catalans!