Labor Law: Rights, Regulations, and Special Relationships

Posted on Jan 19, 2025 in Law & Jurisprudence

1. Characteristics of an Employment Relationship Regulated by the State

An employment relationship regulated by the state must meet the following characteristics:

  • Employed
  • Rewarded
  • Staff
  • Dependent
  • Volunteer

2. Special Labor Relations: A List with Examples

Special labor relations fulfill all criteria of ordinary labor relations but with singular features. Examples include:

  • Senior management staff
  • Workers serving the family home, which includes those who do cleaning, childcare, gardening jobs, etc.
  • Prisoners in penal institutions
  • Professional athletes
  • Artists in public performances
  • People involved in commercial operations, employed by one or more employers, without assuming the risk of operations
  • Workers with disabilities in special centers
  • Dockers
  • Others expressly stated by law

3. Relations Excluded from the Employment Relationship: A List with Examples

Excluded relations are jobs that do not meet any of the conditions for establishing an employment relationship. Examples include:

  • Public officials
  • Obligatory personal service
  • Counselors of corporate enterprises, whenever their only task is performed within the company
  • Jobs based on friendship, benevolence, or good neighborliness
  • Family work, up to the second degree, when living with the employer, unless the status of an employee is shown
  • Trade jobs, when the risk of operations is assumed
  • Carriers with proper administrative approval, with their own vehicles
  • Economically self-dependent autonomous workers

4. Who Created the Rules in Labor Law?

  • The 1978 Constitution
  • Status: Parliament and the Administration
  • Autonomous Communities
  • Representatives of workers and employers
  • Courts of Justice

5. What Types of Standards Exist in Labor Law?

  • The Constitution
  • Laws and rules with the rank of law, approved by the Cortes (Congress and Senate):
  • Ordinary law and organic law
  • Decree
  • Legislative decree
  • Regulations
  • Collective agreement
  • Employment contract
  • Local and professional customs and practices

6. Free Movement of Workers in the European Community

  • The free movement of employees
  • The freedom of establishment
  • The right to freedom to provide services
  • Limits to the free movement of workers

7. What is the ILO?

The International Labor Organization (ILO) aims to improve working conditions and living standards of workers worldwide, in addition to creating assistance and advisory programs for countries that request them.

8. Hierarchy of General Labor Rules

  1. Community law
  2. Constitution
  3. International Treaties
  4. Organic Law
  5. Ordinary Law, Legislative Decree, Decree (Workers’ Statute)
  6. Regulation
  7. Collective Agreement
  8. Work Contract
  9. Local and professional customs and practices

9. Principles of Application in Case of Labor Conflict

Conflict: Between two or more different rules.

Principle Applied (PA): Standard minimum, standard more favorable.

Conflict: In order to interpret a rule differently and with different effects.

PA: Always in favor of the worker.

Conflict: In themselves represent different conditions.

PA: Condition more beneficial to the worker.

10. Rights and Duties of Workers Arising from Work

Rights

  • Work and free choice of profession
  • Organize freely
  • Collective bargaining
  • Measures of collective conflict
  • Strike, gathering information, consultation, and participation in the company
  • Effective occupation
  • Promotion and job training
  • Not to be discriminated against
  • Physical integrity
  • An appropriate safety and health policy
  • Respect for their privacy
  • Due consideration to their dignity
  • Perception of the agreed and timely remuneration
  • Exercise individual actions derived from the contract, and all other rights specifically arising from the work contract

Duties

  • Meet specific requirements of your workplace
  • Observe safety and hygiene measures
  • Carry out orders and instructions from the entrepreneur
  • Do not engage in unfair competition
  • Contribute to improving productivity and all other duties that arise from the respective work contracts