Press Room

As the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) prohibits the prorating of the extra payments, whatever the employee has received for that concept will be considered regular salary (as expressly provided by the CBA) and therefore the company must pay the extra payments again, regardless of the fact that the employee has already received this amount, even if this results in the employee receiving the extra payments twice. Appellate Court of Canary Islands, Feb 22, 2024.

Companies hiring employees who will be regularly working in contact with minors are entitled to access, without charge, the Spanish Central Register of Sexual and Human Trafficking Offenders to obtain a clearance certificate of the employee provided that i) the employee gives their consent, and ii) it is necessary for their hiring. The published information will include the identity of the employee, genetic profile, and sentences and security measures given to the employee.

A Company was sentenced to pay a compensation in the amount of EUR 300 to an employee for non-pecuniary damages arising from the infringement of his right to digital disconnection, because the employee i) received several e-mails (approx. 10 in 4 months) both from the company and from cooperating third parties (service provider for occupational health and safety) and ii) a WhatsApp message, all of them outside of his working hours and to his private e-mail address and private phone number. Although the company neither required the employee to read the messages nor to immediately respond, the employee had only authorised the company to send him communication related to his trade union duties to his private e-mail account/ phone number. In addition, the company was sentenced to pay a further compensation of EUR 700 for breach of the employee's personal data protection, since the employee did not give his consent for the company to provide his personal data to third parties. Appellate Court of Galicia, March 4, 2024.

The post-contractual non-compete agreement allowing the employer alone to release the employee from the non-compete covenant and therefore eliminating employer’s obligation to pay the employee the agreed amount is null and void because the Spanish Civil Code prohibits provisions where one of the parties is allowed not to comply with the obligations agreed - Spanish Supreme Court, 25/1/24.

EU unemployment rate at 6.0 % in January 2024. Spain is the EU country with the highest unemployment rate (11,6%), followed by Greece (10.4%) and Sweden (8.1%). Source: Eurostat.