Working in Spain: End of employment

1. Mutual agreement between the parties
2. Causes set down validly in the contract
3. Expiry of the time agreed or completion of the work or service covered by the contract
4. Resignation of the worker
5. Death, serious invalidity or permanent, total or absolute invalidity of the worker
6. Retirement of the worker
7. Death, retirement or invalidity of the contractor or the end of their legal personality
8. Force majeure
9. Collective dismissal based on economic, technical, organisational or production grounds
10. Will of the worker on justified grounds
11. Dismissal on disciplinary ground
12. Legally admissible objective causes

At the end of the contract, on notifying employees accordingly or, where applicable, giving notice of its end, the employer must provide a draft of the document setting out payment of the amounts owed.

The employee may ask to be accompanied by their legal representative when signing the final discharge, recording on it the fact that his signature was witnessed by the workers' legal representative, or that the employee did not make use of that option. If the employer prevents the representative from attending at the time of signature, the employee may record this on the receipt itself for all due purposes.

Action in the Event of Dismissal

An employee whose employment relationship has been terminated unilaterally by the employer and who does not agree with this decision should proceed as follows:

Conciliation Decision

This is a prerequisite for having any procedure for dismissal brought before the Social Court. A conciliation slip is submitted within 20 working days (excluding Sundays and public holidays) of the time of the dismissal before the Mediation, Arbitration and Conciliation Committee of the Autonomous Community to which this matter is transferred, except Ceuta and Melilla. Procedures that require a prior administrative claim are derogated from this requirement.

Once the conciliation slip has been submitted, the Employment Authority calls upon the parties, which may be:

• An agreement: The parties must accept what has been agreed (reinstatement in the job or compensation, including wages during the proceedings).
• Lack of agreement: The worker must submit a claim to the Social Court within 20 days, when the days between the dismissal and submission of the conciliation slip have elapsed.
• Execution: What is agreed by conciliation will be enforceable between the parties without the need for ratification before the Court or Tribunal, and may be carried out through enforcement proceedings.

Claim Before the Social Court

When the decision on conciliation without agreement has been signed or attempted, the worker must lodge the corresponding application to the Social Court within 20 working days of the time of dismissal (counting the days from the date of dismissal to the submission of the conciliation slip, renewing the period for lodging the claim until the conciliation decision).

The worker may make a claim to the Social Court independently or represented by a lawyer, legal representative, employment consultant or trade union, as applicable. The competent court will generally be the court where the services are provided or where the respondent lives, at the choice of the appellant.

Text last edited on: 06/2005

Source: European Union
© European Communities
Reproduction is authorised.