At a glance
- A draft bill approved by the Council of Ministers on 28 July would introduce specific employment-law protections for workers who report legal breaches or corruption.
- Discrimination in recruitment and throughout the employment relationship linked to protected disclosures would be expressly prohibited.
- Retaliatory measures, including dismissals during the probationary period, objective dismissals, disciplinary dismissals and other adverse employment decisions, would be deemed null and void where connected to a protected disclosure.
- Orders or instructions to discriminate against whistleblowers would also be void.
A draft bill approved by the Council of Ministers on 28 July proposes amendments to the Spanish Workers’ Statute aimed at strengthening protections for workers who report legal infringements or corruption through the channels established under Law 2/2023.
The proposal would expressly prohibit both direct and indirect discrimination linked to protected disclosures. Importantly, these protections would extend beyond existing employees to cover recruitment processes and other pre-employment stages, ensuring that individuals are not disadvantaged because they have made, or may make, a protected report.
The draft would significantly strengthen protection against retaliation by establishing the automatic nullity of a broad range of employer actions taken in response to a protected disclosure. This would include termination during the probationary period, redundancies and disciplinary dismissals, as well as any other employer decision that amounts to adverse treatment or retaliation.
The proposed amendments also address more indirect forms of wrongdoing. Any instruction or order to discriminate against a worker because they have reported misconduct or disclosed information would itself be considered null and void.
Beyond whistleblowing, the draft would reinforce protection for workers who seek to enforce workplace rights. Employer decisions constituting adverse treatment or reprisals, as well as orders to discriminate, would be null where they are adopted in response to an internal complaint, or to administrative or judicial proceedings aimed at enforcing equal treatment and non-discrimination rights. The same protection would apply where the action is linked to the reporting or disclosure of legal infringements or corruption.
