Press Room

On May 1, International Workers’ Day, the Law 2/2025 of April 29 on termination of the employment contract of employees for permanent sick leave entered into force: The employee shall communicate in writing to the Company whether they wish to maintain their employment relationship within 10 calendar days from the notification of the decision declaring the permanent disability. From that moment, the Company has 3 months to make the reasonable adjustments to the job position or to offer the employee a change of their job position in accordance with their professional profile and suitable to their permanent disability. If the adjustment involves an excessive burden for the Company, there is no other suitable existing position, or if existing, the employee does not accept to change their job position, the Company may terminate their contract by a reasoned written communication, without compensation. For a maximum period of 3 months, the employment relationship will remain suspended. When is the adjustment to be made considered an "excessive burden" for the Company? In companies with less than 25 employees: when the adjustment cost, without taking into account any public aid/subsidies that it may receive, exceeds the highest of the following amounts: a) severance compensation for unfair termination (33 days of salary per year of service) or b) 6 months of salary. In all other companies, the adjustment cost shall be assessed in relation to a) the size of the Company, b) its economic means, c) its economic situation and, d) its total turnover. The burden will not be considered excessive when it is sufficiently compensated by public aid/subsidies. This will be decided by a judge.

There is no discrimination when a senior manager earns less than the other female senior managers because all of them have senior management contracts and, therefore, the legislation on equal pay is not applicable (article 28 of the Spanish Employment Act and related legislation) because they do not have a regular employment relationship. In addition, there is no gender discrimination under the application of the constitutional right of equality (article 14 of the Spanish Constitution), because the pay gap was a result of the free will of both parties when they negotiated their conditions. In senior management contracts there is a presumption that the negotiating power of the parties is more balanced and the contract has more similarities to a commercial or civil contract. Canary Appellate Court 02/29/24.