Interior sets minimum services at Correos to protect mail-in voting

The Ministry of the Interior has established the minimum services that the State Company Correos y Telégrafos, SA must provide during the full-day strike on November 11, 2026. The measure is detailed in Order INT/1170/2026, of November 5, published in the Official State Gazette (Boletín Oficial del Estado) no. 277, of November 6, 2026 (reference BOE-A-2026-23329), and is motivated by the coincidence of the strike with the postal vote campaign for the general elections on November 29.

Legal framework and calls for action

The regulation is based on article 22.5 of Law 43/2010, of December 30, on the universal postal service, which allows the Government to impose public service obligations on the designated operator to safeguard the normal development of electoral processes. Correos holds the status of designated operator according to the first additional provision of that same law, and the specific obligations derive from the Agreement of the Council of Ministers of December 2, 2025, for the 2026 elections.

The elections to the General Courts were called by Royal Decree 806/2026, of October 5, for November 29. The order affects two strike calls for November 11:

• CCOO and UGT, full-day general strike from 0 to 24 hours on the 11th.
• CGT, full-day strike from 0 to 23:59 hours in production, goods, services, and distribution sectors.

In centers with shifts, the strike begins with the first shift even if it starts before 0 hours and concludes at the end of the last shift, even if it extends into the following day.

Criteria for offices and delivery

The order declares the minimum services mandatory and tasks Correos with designating the personnel who must cover them. In the office network, they will open during regular hours, with a morning shift or morning and afternoon shifts, for the admission of requests, delivery of electoral documentation, and admission of postal votes:

• Offices of up to 4 people: one employee per shift.
• Offices of 5 to 8 people: two employees per shift.
• Offices of more than 8 people: three employees per shift.
• In all cases, one of the people per shift shall be the director or manager of the office.

In rural areas, “rural services” that have regular public attention will open, with 100% of the staff in rural services with public attention. In distribution, 50% of the delivery staff will be maintained, with a minimum of one worker, in the Distribution and Rural Service Units, and 50% of the Special Service Units in the morning and afternoon shifts, plus one manager per unit.

Processing, logistics, and headquarters

In processing centers, 25% of the staff is established for the morning, afternoon, and night shifts for electoral shipments and propaganda. The forecast covers:

• Fifteen Automated Treatment Centers: Santiago de Compostela, Valladolid, Oviedo, Vitoria, Zaragoza, Barcelona, Mérida, Alicante, Valencia, Palma de Mallorca, Sevilla, Granada, Málaga, Las Palmas and Tenerife, plus Mass Admission Center 1 in Madrid and the Provincial Treatment Center in Bilbao.
• Provincial centers in Pamplona, Jerez and Murcia, for loading and unloading electoral routes.
• Comprehensive Logistics Center in Barcelona and Automated Treatment Center in Madrid, for electoral propaganda.
• International centers: International Treatment Center, International Exchange Office-Ramp 7 and Mass Admission Center 4 in Madrid.

At the headquarters, the personnel remain below 10% of the affected workforce and total 74 people: 21 in the Operations Directorate, 20 in Technology and Digital Transformation, 15 in the General Secretariat and Public Policies, 6 in Human Resources, 4 in Commercial, 3 in Finance, 2 in Strategy, Sustainability and Brand, 2 in Legal Services and 1 in Audit and Control. These include security, cybersecurity, electoral propaganda platforms, urgent payments and relations with the Central Electoral Board and the State Security Forces and Corps.

Impact for voters

The order is signed in Madrid, on November 5, 2026, by Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska Gómez, and justifies the measure based on the need to preserve the right to vote under Article 23 of the Constitution over the right to strike under Article 28.2. For citizens, the practical effect is that offices and rural services will continue to accept requests and votes on November 11, so that the day of the strike does not interrupt the deadlines for postal voting before the elections on November 29.

Source: Official State Gazette, no. 277, November 6, 2026, Sec. III, page 149630 (official reference: BOE-A-2026-23329).