Press Room

From April 3, 2025, the employee who has requested or is currently enjoying i) flexible working hours for work-life balance (article 34.8 of the Workers' Statute [WS]) or ii) a paid leave for accident/serious illness, hospitalization or surgery of a family member according to article 37.3 b) of WS, will again be protected against a termination without serious grounds or with formal mistakes, and the termination will be automatically declared null and void. In addition, the employee will be entitled to terminate his contract based on a breach of contract by the employer, having the right to the severance compensation corresponding to unfair terminations, when, among other reasons, the company a) pays the salary more than 15 days late within 6 months, or b) owes the employee 3 months of salary within 1 year (not necessarily consecutively in both cases).

From December 4, 2024, family members (except great-grandchildren, great grandparents, uncles, nephews, and cousins) of employees working at the same company will be legally protected against any adverse consequence/retaliation by the company if the employee in question claims their rights against the company. Therefore, among others, the termination of the family member without serious grounds will result in having a null and void termination; hence, the family member would be entitled to reinstatement, lost wages, and possible additional severance compensation for breach of fundamental rights. Law 5/2024, November 11 – Right to defense.

ILO Termination of Employment Convention (1982) can be directly applied because i) Spain ratified it in 1985, ii) art. 96.1 of the Spanish Constitution introduces ratified international treaties into our legal system, and iii) art. 7 of the Convention is complete enough not needing any additional enforcement rules to be applied. Art. 7 requires that before the employment termination of a worker related to their conduct or performance, they must be provided with the opportunity to defend themselves from the allegations made, unless the employer cannot reasonably be expected to provide this opportunity. Until yesterday, companies where not obliged to grant this prior hearing to the employees because the Supreme Court’s own jurisprudence held that this was not necessary, but, with this new ruling, Supreme Court’s doctrine has been modified and, from now on, this prior hearing would be required and, may it not be complied, the dismissals will be considered unfair. Spanish Supreme Court 11/18/24

Some of the most important measures related to employment law and Social Security (SS) published today to support companies affected by the DANA (heavy rains) are the following: 100% exemption from the employer's contribution to the SS for the period from November 2024 to February 2025 in the case that the company applies an ERTE (temporary employment suspension) due to force majeure. Postponement on the payment of Social Security contributions due between October 2024 and January 2025, as long as the companies maintain their activity, do not have other postponements in effect, and are up-to-date with their obligations with Social Security. The deadline for paying Social Security contributions accrued in September 2024 will be extended by 1 month. Temporary sick leave for workers affected by the DANA will be considered situations equivalent to a work-related accident (on the day of sick leave, the company will cover 100% of the salary, and from the day after the sick leave onward, workers will receive a pension equivalent to 75% of their regular contribution base, with the payment assumed by the Mutua - insurance company). Benefits for permanent disability, death, and survivors will also be considered as situations equivalent to a work-related accident if the cause is linked to the DANA. Monthly benefits for minimum vital income, retirement pensions, and disability pensions will be increased by 15% between November 2024 and January 2025, both included. No paid leave is foreseen. For more details, check out the Royal Decree-Law 6/2024, of November 5 in "Read More."

Fair dismissal of a married couple of employees because they left unattended their respective duties for a few minutes during peak time to engage in sexual intercourse in the booth where the husband usually is as the maintenance manager of the Tennis Club where they both work (the sexual moans were audible from outside). This behavior constitutes a breach of contractual good faith and an abuse of trust, because they used company premises for personal purposes, and they did it during their working time; it is also notable that the husband was the only one who had the keys to the booth and they used this trust for personal benefit. Furthermore, there were children around who could have witnessed this sexual activity, which could even be classified as a crime of exhibitionism in front of minors. Appellate Court of Catalonia, 03/15/24