Employment Contract Essentials: Subjects & Legalities
Item 4 – Employment Contract Subjects
1. Concepts
Employer: A natural or legal person with legal capacity to hire workers.
Types of Business:
- Individual Entrepreneur: Requires legal capacity and consent (if a minor).
- Legal Business: Formed based on statutory requirements.
Age and Capacity:
- Full Capacity: Acquired at legal age or under specific conditions (parental consent, financial independence, marriage, judicial award).
- Limited Capacity: Individuals over 16 require parental or guardian permission.
- Disability: Contracts with minors under 16 are void unless specific agreements exist. Individuals with disabilities require a guardian’s signature, but contracts are null and void if they lack capacity.
2. Legal Requirements: Employment Contracts and Women
Legal Specifications:
- Maternity Leave: 16 weeks (extendable to 18 for adoption), with six weeks mandatory after delivery. Fathers have similar rights but not concurrent.
- Maternity Leave Pay: Social Security pays 100% of the previous month’s base salary.
- Job Change: Employees can request a job change if it affects the fetus. If not possible, a leave is granted.
- Breastfeeding: Reduced working hours (usually one hour per day) until the baby is nine months old, also applicable to fathers in non-biological breastfeeding cases.
- Reduced Hours: Possible for parents with disabled children or children under six, with a proportional salary reduction.
- Unlawful Dismissal: Firing an employee for exercising these rights is void.
3. Work Speciality and Children
Regulations are dispersed across various standards (e.g., 1997 decree). Children require medical examinations, training, risk notification, and limited work hours. Public performances require authorization and specific rest periods.
4. Working Abroad
Foreigners from EU Member Countries
Free movement and no work permits required, though residence visas may be necessary. Same legislation as Spanish citizens applies.
Non-EU Citizens
Regulated by the Aliens Act. Requires residence and work permits. Permits are issued based on health and economic considerations, including a firm job offer. Work permits are time-limited (one or two years) and renewable.
Types of Work Permits:
- Employed: Temporary, “Home,” and “Renovated.”
- Own: For independent businesses.
- Permanent: For stable labor solvency, renewed every 10 years.
- Extraordinary: For managerial or scientific jobs (extendable to two years).
- Border Workers: For intermittent service workers across borders.
Hiring workers without residence or work permits results in a voidable or null contract according to the Aliens Act.