New Employment Law in force

On 2 March 2023, a new employment law came into force after publication in the Official Gazette.

The aims of the law are to:

• Contribute to the creation of employment and reduction of unemployment;
• Enhancethe employment by providing better quality employment;
• Narrow structural gender gaps; and
• Drive social cohesion.

In particular, the new law amends the Worker’s Statute and the law regulating jurisdiction in disputes on employment classification.  

Amendments to the Worker’s Statute

The new law reforms article 51.2 of the Worker’s Statute which relates to collective dismissals.

The law makes amendments to require that, in collective dismissals, the employer must request the Labour Inspectorate to issue a report in which they assess the existence of the economic, technical, organizational and / or productive grounds alleged by the company in its initial notice of the consultation period. The Inspectorate must also check whether the documents filed by the company align with those required according to the specific ground alleged for dismissal. The Inspectorate’s report must be issued within a non-extendable period of 15 days from the date of notification to the labour authority of the end of the consultation period, and this time period must be incorporated into the collective procedure.

The new law also places a restriction on the attachment of the Spanish minimum wage in both its annual and monthly amount by changing the minimum wage unseizability rules. 

Changes to disputes on employment classification

The procedure which enabled proceedings in the social courts in relation to the classification/misclassification of employment relationship has been repealed. These matters will now be handled as administrative proceedings.  Existing proceedings in the social courts which were admitted for processing before the new law came into effect will continue to be dealt with there.