Employment Contracts and Labor Relations in Spain
What is the Termination of an Employment Contract?
The termination of a contract of work includes the completion of the employment relationship and all its effects. This termination may occur for different reasons:
- The Will of the Workers:
- Resignation
- Breach of obligations by the employer
- The Will of the Employer (Dismissal):
- Disciplinary
- For objective reasons
- Collective
- Force majeure
- Other Causes: Death, retirement, or incapacity of the employee or employer.
What are Processing Salaries?
Salaries during the processing period are the unpaid salary from the date of dismissal until the decision declaring unlawful dismissal. The operator can stop processing these wages if it recognizes the impropriety of the dismissal and offers workers compensation. Such deposits are made available to the employee in the Social Court during the 48 hours following the dismissal.
When is a Dismissal Due to Objective Reasons?
The company management can dismiss a worker for a combination of causes that do not involve breaches by the employee but harm the employer.
What is a Settlement?
Once a labor contract expires, whatever the cause of termination, the company must perform the relevant assets or liquidation of Settlement, which consists of a payment to the employee and amounts generated by concepts but still uncleared, including:
- Proportion of extra payments
- Proportion of holiday
The signing of a final settlement means a worker agrees to the settlement made by the company, acknowledging having received all amounts that the company could become due, so in principle, they could not later claim.
What is Meant by Union?
Unions are organizations formed to defend the interests and improve working conditions of workers. Depending on whether it is a union representing people from the same profession, for example, the pilots’ union or the police, or if it is an umbrella organization of workers in general, its activities benefit only their associates or all workers in general.
How are Workers Represented in the Company?
Workers are entitled to participate in the company through their legal representatives, who are elected by vote by all staff recruited by the company. The above are legal representatives and staff representatives committee.
Representatives:
Staff Delegates
Delegates are elected personnel in companies with more than ten employees and less than fifty. There may also be delegated to staff in companies with between six and ten workers if they so decide by majority vote. Delegates to staff, which may belong to a union or act independently, are chosen by the workers in a number from 1 to 3, depending on the number of employees of the company.
Committee for Enterprise
The works council is the representative body for collegiate business workers to defend their interests. It is in workplaces that have fifty or more workers.
Who Can Be Elected as a Representative?
The election of delegates and staff members of the works can be done by initiative:
- The most representative trade unions.
- Other unions that have a minimum of 10% representation in the company.
- Employees of the company by majority.
The promoters of the election must notify the company and labor management (state or regional) of its intention to hold elections, with a minimum of one month in advance.
All employees of the company who have at least one month of seniority are voters, and all workers over 18 years and a length of service of at least six months may be elected representatives.
Who Can Participate in the Vote?
Both the election of delegates of staff and committee members, on the same date that the promoters communicate their intention to hold elections, it should be a table electoral college for every 250 workers or fraction thereof. This table consists of: A President (the oldest employee of the company) and two members (both major and minor constituents of age, younger voters will also be the secretary). The polling station is responsible for receiving the lists of candidates, monitoring the electoral process, chairing the vote to count votes, drawing up a record, and resolving any claims that may arise on the elections.
What is a Collective Agreement?
The collective agreement is a pact between workers and employers through which establishes the conditions by which labor relations are governed within its scope.
What is the Scope of the Collective Agreement?
The collective agreements have the scope agreed upon by the parties involved in their preparation. Depending on the region to which it applies, the enterprise agreement can be local, provincial, autonomous region, or national. According to the sector, the convention will affect a branch of production. For example, the sector collective agreement or collective agreement Chemical Department Stores. Within each production sector, the agreement may affect all workers in an enterprise or part thereof. For example, within the airline industry, there is a convention for the drivers, one for flight attendants, etc. The collective agreement requires all employers and employees included within its scope. It therefore has overall effectiveness.
What is a Strike?
A strike involves the temporary suspension of the contract and collective work by workers to protest or for profit. It may be agreed upon by the majority of workers or their legal representatives or by the decision of the unions representing the sector. The strike is a right recognized by the Spanish Constitution.
How Do You Solve Disputes?
Collective disputes can be resolved in the following ways:
- Through the negotiation between the parties to reach an agreement.
- Through the intervention of third parties.
- Through procedures of court settlement of disputes. In some countries, solutions are proposed that are acceptable or not. In others, solutions (called rulings) are dictated that the parties are obliged to accept. Most of the Autonomous Communities have signed agreements of alternative dispute resolution.
- Through the judicial process before the Courts and Tribunals of the social order.
What is a Lockout?
A lockout is the collective suspension of employment by the employer. When a strike is developing, the employer may temporarily close the workplace if, by the attitude of the strikers, there is a notorious danger of violence to persons or serious damage to company property or if the absence of workers from their jobs seriously impedes the production process. The employer, after the closure, is obliged to notify the labor authorities within 12 hours and to open up the workplace as soon as the circumstances that led to the closure have been resolved.