Understanding Labor Relations and Employment Law

Posted on Mar 16, 2025 in Law & Jurisprudence

Concept of Work

Different human activities requiring physical or mental effort. There are three types of work:

  • The employment relationship, which constitutes a proper working relationship.
  • A working relationship of a special character.
  • Work in which there is no employment relationship.

The first is governed by labor law. The second is governed by specific regulations, and labor law is applied only to those matters not regulated by this specific legislation. The third is covered by other standards.

Labor Relationship

Labor relationships are regulated by labor law. These relationships involve an employment contract and meet five characteristics: They must be personal, voluntary, employed, paid, and dependent.

Special Labor Relations

Special Labor Relations embody the qualities of an employment relationship; however, they have their own specific rules. Labor law only applies to those matters not covered by specific regulations.

  1. Senior Managers
  2. Assistants
  3. Inmates in Correctional Institutions
  4. Professional Athletes
  5. Artists in Public Performances
  6. Handicapped in Special Employment Centers

Non-Work Relations

These are industrial relations in which it is not possible to implement labor law because they lack some of the characteristics of an employment relationship or because they have specific norms.

  1. Public Officers
  2. Work Performed out of Friendship, Kindness, or Good Neighborliness
  3. Family Workers, unless there is an employment contract and payment of wages
  4. Self-Employed Workers

Concept of Right

A set of legal rules that govern human relations within a society and are mandatory for all individuals.

Material Source of Law

Refers to who has the power to make rules:

  1. The Legislature: General Cortes or Parliament and Legislative Assemblies of the Autonomous Communities.
  2. The Executive: Government Ministries and Agencies of the Government of the Autonomous Communities.
  3. Lower-Level Administrative Bodies: Provincial Councils, Municipalities, etc.
  4. Other Groups of People.

Formal Sources of Law

How legal norms are manifested:

  1. Law in the broad sense, i.e., as a written rule of law.
  2. Custom: The modus operandi of a group of people in an area not regulated by a written rule.
  3. General Principles of Law: Those rules that apply when there is no applicable law or custom.

The Law

Any type of written law.

  1. Law in the strict sense: Passed by the legislature (Spanish Constitution, Organic Laws, and Ordinary Laws).
  2. Rules with the rank of law: Dictated by the executive power and equivalent to laws in the strict sense (Royal Legislative Decree and Royal Decree-Law).
  3. Regulations: Written rules passed by lower-level administrative bodies (Ministerial Orders, Royal Decrees, Municipal Edicts).

Labor Law

A branch of law regulating the individual and collective relationships that arise in the professional field, provided they are based on work done personally, voluntarily, unpaid, employed, and dependent on the employer.

External Sources of Labor Law

  1. Community Regulations
  2. Directives
  3. ILO Conventions
  4. Other Treaties Signed by Spain with other Countries in Labor Matters