| Termination of employment contracts in Spain

Below, our law firm in Marbella will introduce you to the keys to the termination of employment contracts in Spain.

The first one takes place when the termination occurs due to causes beyond the control of both contracting parties

Termination of the employment contract in Spain for reasons beyond our control

It should be borne in mind that the service lease contract, from which the employment contract in Spain (locatio operis) derives, has undergone significant development in the status of workers, and in addition to the ordinary causes of termination, the parties’ power to terminate their professional relationship, as well as the termination of the object of the legal transaction itself, should be provided for.

Thus, the termination of an employment contract in Spain for reasons beyond the control of both contracting parties ends the employment relationship without compensation from the employer, as can be seen in work contracts for the completion of construction work or fixed-term contracts (although with some exceptions). Where the term of the employment contract has elapsed or the work or services have been performed, the employment relationship between the employer and employee is terminated.

Currently, in times of coronavirus, there is no justification for dismissal for objective reasons when it is related to the situation of economic or health crisis from the Covid- 19. By banning the processing of the objective dismissal procedure with this measure, we must also point out that within this group of dismissals, collective dismissals are frequent, known as ERES, Expedientes de Regularización de Empleo (Employment Regularization Files) where the employer can reorganise or structure its staff on this basis.

Termination of employment contracts in Spain for objective reasons

Another relevant category is that which takes place for objective reasons, i.e. the employment contract in Spain can be terminated for objective reasons.

This category includes economic causes (crisis situations), technical causes (technical retraining or reconditioning in the company).

Termination of employment contracts in Spain for organizational reasons

When there is a restructuring of the workforce due to the needs of the company or production reasons. In these cases, the current termination of the employment relationship for these reasons would give rise to an indemnity payable by the employer of 20 days’ salary per year of service with a limit of 12 monthly payments.

Termination of the employment contract in Spain due to the will of the parties

Dismissals in Spain can be based on the termination of the employment contract by the will of one of the parties. Thus, the termination of the employment relationship by the will of the employee will mean the termination of the legal employment relationship between the employee and the employer, but will not give the right to any perfection or compensation.

On the other hand, we find dismissals that are based on the employer’s will, this being understood as unfair dismissal.

This dismissal implies the extinction of the legal labour relationship between worker and employer although a determination of the cause of the same dismissal is made to the merely formal effects, recognising the unfairness of the same and compensating with the amount of 33 days per year worked with a limit of 24 monthly payments.

Finally, an independent category is that known as disciplinary dismissal in Article 54 of the Spanish Workers’ Statute.

This article bases the dismissal on a violation of the labour trust placed in the worker and is considered to be a breach of contract, which is specified as serious and guilty. Repeated and unjustified absences from work and punctuality are considered breaches of contract, with a jurisprudential development relating to the limits for determining the justification of this cause for dismissal, indiscipline or disobedience at work, verbal or physical insults to the employer or to persons working in the company or to family members living with them, violation of the law and abuse of trust in the performance of work, continuous and voluntary reduction of normal or agreed work performance, habitual drunkenness or drug addi

ction if it has a negative impact on work, and harassment on grounds of racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age, sexual orientation, sexual harassment or on grounds of sex to the employer or persons working in the company.

This will result in the termination of the employment relationship in Spain without any right to compensation from the employer.

We can find particular situations in relation to the extinction of the legal relationship of the workers such as the case of the ERTES, Expediente de regularización temporal de Empleo (Temporary regularisation of employment file) or the situation that occurs in the extinction in the bankruptcy proceedings where they are processed as an incident of the bankruptcy proceedings and whose complexity goes beyond the following lines.

Do not hesitate to contact our office of lawyers and economists in Marbella for any questions of a labour nature! We have the best social graduates and labour lawyers in Spain!

Welex, your employment consultant in Marbella, Estepona, Benahavis, Fuengirola, Mijas and Malaga. Its two social graduates, members of the Illustrious Official College of Social Graduates in Malaga, specialists in employment advice, are a reference in the employment advice in Spain

Our employment consultants in Spain provide the following services, among others:

ADVICE AND PREPARATION OF TYPES OF EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS FOR WORKERS

Studying and obtaining work contracts in Spain and their possible extensions. Control of expiration of work/employment contracts in Spain.

TERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS IN SPAIN THROUGH DISMISSALS AND RESIGNATIONS

Carrying out of the precise documentation in the cases of extinction of work contracts in Spain obtaining:

Letters of notice and Letters of dismissal to be presented to the employee at the time of dismissal in Spain. Pre-liquidations and settlements. Company certificates, etc.