Changes to work contracts to promote stable employment

Automatic summary, not yet reviewed

1. More contracts must be in writing: training, part-time, fixed-discontinuous, relief, work-at-home, specific work or service contracts, and temporary contracts longer than four weeks. If they are not, the contract is presumed to be indefinite and full-time.
2. It regulates training contracts. A training and apprenticeship contract can be signed within four years after finishing studies (six for workers with disabilities), lasts between six months and two years, and pay cannot be below 60 or 75 percent of the collective agreement salary depending on the year. The contract for training is aimed at young people aged 16 to 21 without a qualification, with a minimum of six months and a maximum of two years.
3. It clarifies part-time, fixed-discontinuous and relief contracts. It also allows a worker close to retirement to cut their hours and pay by half, with a relief contract for an unemployed person covering those hours.
4. It defines the limits of temporary contracts: for a specific work or service, for market circumstances or excess orders (maximum six months within twelve, extendable by collective agreement to eighteen months), and for substitution with job reservation.
5. It creates, on a temporary basis, the contract to promote indefinite hiring, aimed at young people aged 18 to 29, long-term unemployed, people over 45, workers with disabilities, and temporary workers converting to permanent contracts. If an objective dismissal is declared unfair, compensation is 33 days of salary per year of service, up to a maximum of 24 months of pay.
6. It changes the grounds for objective dismissal for economic, technical, organizational or production reasons, and allows collective agreements to set procedures for information and monitoring of these dismissals. Workers' representatives will have priority to stay in the company.

Who it affects

• Unemployed young people aged 18 to 29: They can sign the new contract to promote indefinite hiring.
• Long-term unemployed, people over 45 and workers with disabilities: Groups also covered by that indefinite contract.
• Temporary workers: They can convert their temporary contract into a permanent one under the new scheme.
• Companies: They get new rules for training, apprenticeship, part-time and temporary hiring, and limits if they have made unfair dismissals.
• Workers under training contracts: Their Social Security protection improves, including temporary disability coverage and the Wage Guarantee Fund.

Words worth knowing

Contrato fijo-discontinuo (fixed-discontinuous contract)

A permanent contract for work that recurs at certain times of the year; the company calls the worker when there is activity.

Contrato de relevo (relief contract)

A contract signed by an unemployed person to cover the hours freed up by an older worker who reduces their hours before retiring.

Despido objetivo (objective dismissal)

A dismissal based on economic, technical, organizational or production reasons, not on the worker's conduct.

Convenio colectivo (collective agreement)

An agreement negotiated between unions and employers that sets working conditions for a sector or company.

Empresa de trabajo temporal (temporary work agency)

A company that hires workers and assigns them to other companies to work there temporarily.

It summarizes the law as published in the BOE. It is written by artificial intelligence and may contain mistakes: the official text is what counts. Read the official text · How we make summaries