Spainwide Business Services

Employment Issues

It would be reasonable to assess the existing labour laws as less liberal than in the UK and Ireland and certainly as far as the US is concerned. Lately, as a result of the economic crisis affecting Spain as much as any other country, there have been calls to liberalise said laws however up until now at least, the Spanish prime minister has resisted such calls.

It is important that any potential employer makes themselves aware of their rights and obligations in this area as to do otherwise could prove costly.

Essentially employments contracts, apart from their own clauses are governed by the current employment legislation, most notable the worker’s statute (estatuto de los trabajadores) and the collective employment agreement (convenio colectivo) which can be both geographically and/or industry-specific and is an agreement arrived at (and periodically updated) by both the employers’ and employees’ representatives.

The area of employment law Spain may be divided into the following sections:

• Employment Contracts.
• Working Days and Holiday Leave.
• Salaries.
• Terminating an Employment Contract.
• Sick Leave.
• Maternity.
• Role of The ‘Convenios’.