Life satisfaction
Data source: 2016 EQLS survey
Ability to choose or change
methods of work
Data source: 2015 EWCS survey
Possibility to accumulate overtime
for days off
Data source: 2013 ECS survey
Living and working in Spain
20 May 2020
- Population: 46.9 million (2019)
- Real GDP growth: 2.4% (2018)
- Unemployment rate: 15.3% (2018)
Data source: Eurostat
Eurofound provides research, data and analysis on a wide range of social and work-related topics. This information is largely comparative, but also offers country-specific information for each of the 28 EU Member States, which included the UK prior to its withdrawal from the European Union on 31 January 2020. Most information is available in English but some has been translated to facilitate access at national level.
Eurofound strives to strengthen the ongoing link between its own work and national policy debates and priorities related to quality of life and work. Increasingly important in this context is the Europe 2020 growth and jobs strategy launched in 2010, which has five headline targets, covering employment through to social inclusion and poverty reduction. The strategy is implemented in the context of the European Semester process – the EU's annual cycle of economic policy guidance and surveillance – which ensures that Member States keep their budgetary and economic policies in line with their EU commitments through, in part, National Reform Programmes. These programmes form the basis for the European Commission's proposals for country-specific recommendations (CSRs) for each Member State.
European Commission: The European Semester
European Commission: The European Semester - EU country-specific recommendations
European Commission: European Semester documents for Spain
2015 Eurofound EWCS survey results in Spain: 38% of people consider their job affecting their health negatively
Living and working in Spain and COVID-19
COVID-19 continues to have a profound impact on people’s lives across the globe, with major implications for quality of life and work. Eurofound has taken a multipronged response to the pandemic, adapting its research focus in a variety of ways. A new database of national-level policy responses, COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch, collates information on measures taken by government and social partners, as well as company practices, aiming to cushion the effects of the crisis. Eurofound launched an e-survey in early April, Living, working and COVID-19, to capture the immediate economic and social effects of the crisis across the European Union and beyond. The survey investigates the impact on well-being, work and telework and on the financial situation of people living in Europe. The first findings for each country, as well as a range of data pages are now available.
Explore our data pages by country to find out more on the situation in Spain.
The country page gives access to Eurofound's most recent survey data and news, directly related to Spain:
- Living in Spain - country-level data from the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS)
- Working life in Spain - key characteristic of working life across a range of parameters.
Research carried out prior to 31 January 2020, and published subsequently, may include data relating to the 28 EU Member States. Following this date, research only takes into account the 27 EU Member States (EU28 minus the UK), unless specified otherwise.
Survey results
Recent developments
Eurofound contacts in Spain
Correspondents in Spain
Correspondents report on topics related to developments in the country's working life and inform Eurofound’s pan-European comparative analysis. Read more
Consortium Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona (UAB- QUIT), and Instituto Sindical de Trabajo, Ambiente y Salud (ISTAS)
Eurofound Management Board members from Spain
Eurofound's Management Board is made up of representatives of the social partners and national governments of all Member States, European Commission representatives and an independent expert appointed by the European Parliament. Read more
Domingo Jimenez Valladolid Ministry of Employment, Migrations and Social Security
Miguel Canales Gutiérrez Spanish Association of the Electrical Industry (UNESA)
Fernando Rocha Sánchez Federation of Workers' Commissions (CCOO)
Living in Spain
Quality of life
Quality of life
The EQLS findings show that both life satisfaction and happiness have decreased slightly from 2011 to 2016 in Spain. Life satisfaction fell from 7.5 in 2011 to 7.0 in 2016 and happiness from 7.8 to 7.3 during the same time period (on a scale from 1 to 10). These 2016 levels are very similar to the respective EU28 averages of 7.1 for life satisfaction and 7.4 for happiness.
However, the share of respondents in Spain reporting at least some difficulties in making ends meet increased from 41% in 2007 to 52% in 2011 and has not recovered, standing at 51% in 2016. This is also higher than the respective EU28 average of 39% in 2016.
Many of the indicators about life satisfaction in Spain are close to the EU28 averages. For instance, 66% of respondents in Spain are optimistic about their own future (EU28 average, 64%) and 57% are optimistic about their children’s future (EU28 average, also 57%).
| 2003 | 2007 | 2011 | 2016 | ||
| Life satisfaction | Mean (1-10) | 7.5 | 7.3 | 7.5 | 7.0 |
| Taking all things together on a scale of 1 to 10, how happy would you say you are? | Mean (1-10) | 7.8 | 7.6 | 7.8 | 7.3 |
| Optimism about own future | Agree & strongly agree | - | - | - | 66% |
| Optimism about children’s or grandchildren’s future | Agree & strongly agree | - | - | - | 57% |
| Take part in sports or physical exercise | At least once a week | - | - | 38% | 35% |
| In general, how is your health? | Very good | - | 23% | 26% | 24% |
| WHO-5 mental wellbeing index | Mean (1-100) | - | 66 | 65 | 68 |
| Making ends meet | With some difficulty, difficulty, and great difficulty | 48% | 41% | 52% | 51% |
| I feel I am free to decide how to live my life | Strongly agree | - | - | 36% | 25% |
| I find it difficult to deal with important problems that come up in my life | Agree & strongly agree | - | - | - | 23% |
| When things go wrong in my life, it generally takes me a long time to get back to normal | Agree & strongly agree | - | - | - | 23% |
Work-life balance
Work-life balance
The share of respondents in Spain reporting work–life balance problems in 2016 is similar to the 2011 figure. Additionally, the work-life balance indicators in Spain are close to the EU28 averages. Overall, 65% of respondents in Spain report being ‘too tired from work to do some of the household jobs which need to be done’ at least several times a month, while the respective EU28 average is 59%. Furthermore, 41% of the respondents in Spain feel that ‘it has been difficult to fulfil family responsibilities because of work’, which is close to the EU28 average of 38%.
Women are more likely to report work–life balance problems in Spain. For instance, 70% of women feel ‘too tired from work to do some of the household jobs which need to be done’, compared to 60% of men.
| 2003 | 2007 | 2011 | 2016 | ||
| (At least several times a month) | |||||
| I have come home from work too tired to do some of the household jobs which need to be done | Total | 58% | 58% | 69% | 65% |
| Men | 55% | 58% | 63% | 60% | |
| Women | 62% | 58% | 76% | 70% | |
| It has been difficult for me to fulfil my family responsibilities because of the amount of time I spend on the job | Total | 31% | 38% | 41% | 41% |
| Men | 28% | 40% | 39% | 39% | |
| Women | 35% | 35% | 43% | 44% | |
| I have found it difficult to concentrate at work because of my family responsibilities | Total | 12% | 16% | 21% | 22% |
| Men | 10% | 15% | 18% | 20% | |
| Women | 15% | 18% | 25% | 24% | |
Quality of society
Quality of society
Perceived tensions between poor and rich have decreased in Spain. In total, 32% of respondents reported ‘a lot of’ this type of tension in 2003, decreasing to 25% in 2016 and falling below the EU28 average of 29%. Similarly, perceived tensions between different racial and ethnic groups have decreased, from 42% reporting ‘a lot of’ tension in 2003 to 26% in 2016, which is much lower than the EU28 average of 41%.
The share of respondents in Spain who felt safe when walking alone after dark stood at 48% in 2016, compared with the lower EU28 average of 35%.
Trust in other people has decreased in Spain during the observation period (2003–2016). In 2003, the mean trust score was 6.0 (on a scale from 1 to 10), falling to match the EU28 average of 5.2 in 2016.
| 2003 | 2007 | 2011 | 2016 | ||
| Social exclusion index | Mean (1-5) | - | 1.8 | 2.0 | 1.9 |
| Trust in people | Mean (1-10) | 6.0 | 5.7 | 5.4 | 5.2 |
| Involvement in unpaid voluntary work | % "at least once a month" | - | - | 8% | 6% |
| Tension between poor and rich people | % reporting 'a lot of tension' | 32% | 24% | 27% | 25% |
| Tension between different racial and ethnic groups | % reporting 'a lot of tension' | 42% | 34% | 30% | 26% |
| I feel safe when I walk alone after dark | Strongly agree | - | - | - | 48% |
Quality of public services
Quality of public services
Quality ratings for seven public services
Note: scale of 1-10, Source: EQLS 2016.
The perceived quality of health services has improved in Spain, from 6.3 in 2003 to 7.2 in 2016 (on a scale from 1 to 10. This rating is also higher than the respective EU average of 6.7 in 2016. Most of the other quality ratings for public services also show signs of improvement, except the rating given for the state pension system which decreased from 5.7 in 2003 to 5.3 in 2016. The quality ratings for public services in Spain are similar to the respective EU28 averages.
| 2003 | 2007 | 2011 | 2016 | ||
| Health services | Mean (1-10) | 6.3 | 6.8 | 7.0 | 7.2 |
| Education system | Mean (1-10) | 6.2 | 6.5 | 6.6 | 6.6 |
| Public transport | Mean (1-10) | 6.6 | 6.5 | 6.9 | 6.9 |
| Childcare services | Mean (1-10) | - | 6.1 | 6.5 | 6.6 |
| Long-term care services | Mean (1-10) | - | - | 6.2 | 6.4 |
| Social housing | Mean (1-10) | - | - | 5.5 | 5.7 |
| State pension system | Mean (1-10) | 5.7 | 5.1 | 5.3 | 5.3 |
Working life in Spain
About
- Author: Oscar Molina
- Institution: Centre d’Estudis Sociològics sobre la Vida Quotidiana i el Treball – QUIT, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona – UAB
- Published on: Monday, November 18, 2019
This profile describes the key characteristics of working life in Spain. It aims to complement other EurWORK research by providing the relevant background information on the structures, institutions and relevant regulations regarding working life. This includes indicators, data and regulatory systems on the following aspects: actors and institutions, collective and individual employment relations, health and well-being, pay, working time, skills and training, and equality and non-discrimination at work. The profiles are updated annually.
Highlights – Working life in 2019
Highlights – Working life in 2019
Highlights updated on: 3 March 2020
For more information, see working paper:
Spain: Developments in working life 2018
Developments in working life in 2019 were marked by political instability. A fragmented parliament hindered the creation of a stable government after the elections were held in April. After second elections in November, the Socialist party (PSOE) and the left-wing party Podemos signed a coalition agreement containing an ambitious plan to combat precarious work and contribute to enhanced quality of employment.
Uncertainty in the political arena had a negative impact on social dialogue, which meant limited results in 2019. Moreover, most of the areas identified by social partners in the 2018 cross-sectoral agreement as key for developing social dialogue (including vocational training, absenteeism, fighting the informal economy, gender equality in the labour market) remained largely underdeveloped.
Nonetheless, the government continued to implement a plan for decent work that included the following: a 22.3% increase in the statutory minimum wage up to €900 per month; strengthening the labour inspection; and combating the fraudulent use of part-time contracts through a compulsory registry of working time.
The government also extended parental leave as part of its commitment to gender equality in the labour market.
Social partners repeatedly complained about their marginal role in drafting some of the government’s laws. They emphasised the need to involve them in the process, so as to enhance the effectiveness and legitimacy of these laws.
The year showed a consolidation of growth, a reduction in the unemployment rate and the increase in real wages. In addition to an improved economic context, three developments pushed wages up and made a positive contribution to demand and growth: the peak cross-sectoral agreement for 2018–2020 that set a minimum wage of €1000 in collective agreements; the increase in the statutory minimum wage; and the increase in real wages for public sector employees.
While the effects of internal devaluation on average income levels have been largely overcome, the increase in inequalities in earnings registered since the global financial crisis remained a major challenge for the government and social partners in 2019. Particularly worrying was the continued widening of the gender pay gap in spite of economic recovery. The pay gap may be explained, in part, by the increase of employment in male-dominated sectors like construction in recent years, the prevalence of women with non-standard contracts and the higher presence of men in high-wage jobs.
Key figures
Key figures
Comparative figures on working life in Spain
|
2012 |
2018 |
% (point) change 2012-2018 |
||||
|
Spain |
EU28 |
Spain |
EU28 |
Spain |
EU28 |
|
|
GDP per capita |
22,200 |
25,700 |
25,000 |
28,200 |
12.61% |
9.73% |
|
Unemployment rate – total |
24.8 |
10.5 |
15.3 |
6.8 |
-9.50 |
-3.70 |
|
Unemployment rate – women |
25.1 |
10.6 |
17.0 |
7.1 |
-8.10 |
-3.50 |
|
Unemployment rate – men |
24.6 |
10.4 |
13.7 |
6.6 |
-10.90 |
-3.80 |
|
Unemployment rate – youth |
52.9 |
23.3 |
34.3 |
15.2 |
-18.60 |
-8.10 |
|
Employment rate – total |
74.3 |
71.7 |
73.7 |
73.7 |
-0.60 |
2.00 |
|
Employment rate – women |
68.4 |
65.5 |
68.6 |
68.3 |
0.20 |
2.80 |
|
Employment rate – men |
80.1 |
77.8 |
78.8 |
79.2 |
-1.30 |
1.40 |
|
Employment rate – youth |
39.0 |
42.4 |
33.0 |
41.7 |
-6.00 |
-0.70 |
Source: Eurostat - Real GDP per capita (chain linked volumes [2010], in EUR) and percentage change 2012-2018 (both based on tsdec100). Unemployment rate by sex and age - annual average, % [une_rt_a]; Employment rate by sex and age - annual average, % [lfsi_emp_a].
Background
Background
Economic and labour market context
In 2018 the Spanish economy maintained a positive GDP growth of 2.6%, above the EU average. Even though the economy started to show signs of deceleration, labour market indicators improved considerably in 2018. The unemployment rate went down to 14.6% in the third quarter compared to 16.4% one year before. Male unemployment decreased 10.9 percentage points in the six years considered. Youth unemployment remains high at 34.3% in 2018, in contrast with the EU average of 15.2% for the same year. The total employment rate in 2018 was 73.7%, the same level as the EU average. Youth employment figures decreased between 2012 and 2018 (-6 percentage points) and stood at 33% in 2018, against an EU average of 41.7% for the same year.
More information on:
- European Commission: EURES – Living and working in Spain
- European Industrial Relations Dictionary: Undeclared work
- Data: Tackling undeclared work in Europe
Legal context
The main labour code for private employees is the Statute of Workers’ Rights (1980). It also regulates collective bargaining issues (mechanisms governing coordination between different levels of collective wage setting, opt-out clauses and conditions, etc). It has been modified by different royal-decrees and laws. The last law that modified important elements was Law 3/2012 of 6 July.
The main labour code for public employees is the Basic Statute of Public Workers (Law 7/2007).
Trade union regulation and representativeness is regulated through the Organic Law of Trade Union Freedom (1985).
Industrial relations context
Industrial relations in Spain during the 1980s were affected by the political transition from a dictatorship to a democracy, as well as a process of industrial and economic modernisation in order to prepare the country for its integration into the European Community. During the first years of the transitional period (1978–1982), the unions accepted wage moderation in exchange for institutional recognition and further development of social and labour rights. In addition, it favoured some coordination and centralisation of collective bargaining. The collective bargaining structure that consolidated in those years is still present today and is characterised by its multi-level character, with negotiations taking place at sectoral, provincial and company levels.
From 1986 to 1997, a period of crisis in ‘social concertation’ negatively affected collective bargaining. The most important problems at this time were the lack of coordination and the poor renewal of the rounds of collective bargaining.
After 1997, social dialogue was revitalised during a period of economic and employment growth. Thus, from 1997 to 2008, different tripartite agreements were achieved. In addition, annual bi-partite peak inter-sectoral agreements on collective bargaining started to be concluded by the social partners. These agreements play an important role in coordinating collective bargaining in Spain. The economic crisis that began in 2008 has strongly affected the industrial relations context. The Spanish system weathered the impact of the economic crisis relatively well initially, but the situation changed dramatically after 2011, when two important reforms on collective bargaining rules were enacted by the government. Both reforms seemed to accept a common diagnosis formulated by different EU and Spanish institutions, which deemed Spanish collective bargaining too rigid, thus impeding companies from modifying working arrangements in order to adjust to shocks. The last reform approved in 2012 has affected some of the most important dimensions of the Spanish collective bargaining system (ultra-activity, predominance of company level agreements, etc.). Several studies have shown how labour market reforms have contributed to the process of internal devaluation and decline in real wages, which have not yet regained pre-crisis levels. During the crisis and in the context of austerity policies, social dialogue experienced a breakdown and only started to recover in 2016. In 2018, social dialogue gained momentum with the signing of some tripartite agreements and bipartite pacts that seek to reverse some of the negative effects of the economic crisis.
Actors and institutions
Actors and institutions
Trade unions, employers’ organisations and public institutions play a key role in the governance of the employment relationship, working conditions and industrial relations structures. They are interlocking parts in a multilevel system of governance that includes European, national, sectoral, regional (provincial or local) and company levels. This section looks into the main actors and institutions and their role in Spain.
Public authorities involved in regulating working life
The main ministry dealing with social dialogue and working conditions is the Ministry of Labour, Migration and Social Security and the Employment Departments of the Autonomous Communities. The Ministry plays an important role in fostering tripartite social dialogue. Moreover, these institutions are in charge of registering the collective agreements. Once a collective agreement has been concluded, the signatory parties must send the collective agreement to the public authority (the Ministry of Labour if it is national and the Employment Departments of the Autonomous Communities if it is regional) within 15 days. Prior to the registration, the public authorities make sure that the content of the agreement is in line with legislation. If the collective agreement goes against legislation, the public authority can challenge it.
The main institution ensuring the enforcement of employees’ rights is the Work Inspection and Social Security body, which does so through the labour inspectorates. Labour inspectorates are in charge of monitoring working conditions, the unions’ relationships and social security duties (registration of workers for social security, contributions paid to social security and so on).
The labour inspectorates are also in charge of monitoring the performance of health and safety regulations. This includes validating and promoting the implementation of the health and safety regulations, advising companies on how to apply health and safety regulations, elaborating reports concerning work accidents and professional diseases, suggesting penalties to the Labour Administration in case of non-compliance and ordering the stoppage of work in case of dangerous circumstances.
Representativeness
In Spain, the concept of representativeness guarantees an erga omnes representation for both trade unions and employers’ organisations. Thus, it endows the most representative trade unions and employer organisations with the capacity to negotiate agreements on behalf of all workers in the sector or company in which the agreement is negotiated.
The main legal criterion for determining the representativeness of trade unions is based on the workplace election results of workers’ delegates and workers’ committee members. Accordingly, the electoral process aiming to choose the employees’ representatives at the workplace is used to measure trade union support. For employers’ organisations, the criterion for determining their representativeness is based on membership.
Through the concept of ‘most representative organisations’, employers’ organisations and trade unions are entitled to conclude multiemployer collective agreements, to have institutional representation (in other words, to be a part of tripartite bodies, to be consulted by the government and to conclude social pacts) and to take part in extrajudicial systems of labour conflict resolution. Moreover, meeting the criterion of legal representativeness is the basis for getting access to public funds.
Trade unions
About trade union representation
According to the Organic Law of Trade Union Freedom (1985), all workers can join trade unions except members of the Spanish Forces, judges and public prosecutors.
Trade union density in Spain has remained rather stable since the early 1980s. Even though the lack of reliable data make it difficult to assess it, most estimates point to 15–20% as the density rate in Spain since the early 1980s. Even though it has been subject to cyclical fluctuations, it does not exhibit a clear downward trend, as it does in other EU countries. Since the onset of the crisis, however, trade union density has slightly decreased according to the figures provided by the Working and Living Conditions Survey conducted by the Ministry of Employment (17.4% in 2008 compared to 16.4% in 2010). Unfortunately, the survey has not been conducted since 2010. According to OECD figures, trade union density remained stable at 17% from 2010 to 2013.
The main criterion for determining union representativeness is the electoral audience, which is determined by the number of delegates and working committee members obtained in the elections. This, together with the automatic extension of collective agreements explains the low density rates in Spain, as workers have limited incentives to join trade unions.
Trade union membership and trade union density
|
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
Source |
|
|
Trade union density in terms of active employees |
17% |
17% |
17% |
17% |
15.6% |
13.9% |
n.a. |
|
|
Trade union membership in 1,000s |
2,678 |
2,583 |
2,472 |
2,360 |
2,227 |
2,047 |
n.a. |
Main trade union confederations and federations
The most representative unions in Spain are the Trade Union Confederation of Workers’ Commissions (Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras, CCOO) and the General Workers’ Confederation (Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT), which account for 70% of workers’ committees representatives elected in 2015 (Alós et al. 2015).
Main trade union confederations and federations
|
Long name |
Abbreviation |
Members |
Involved in collective bargaining |
|
Trade Union Confederation of Workers’ Commissions |
CCOO |
909,052* (2015) |
Yes |
|
General Workers’ Confederation |
UGT |
928,846** (2015) |
Yes |
Sources: *CCOO report “Affiliation and representativeness in 31-12-2015 (Afiliación y Representación en 31-12-2015)”.
**article in Expansion newspaper.
In addition to the most representative confederations at national level, there are some smaller confederations, including Trade Union Workers Unity (Unión Sindical Obrera, USO) and General Workers’ Confederation (Confederación General del Trabajo, CGT). Moreover, there are the most representative confederations at regional level. These are the Galician Inter-sectoral Confederation (Confederación Intersectoral Galega, CIG) and Solidarity of Basque Workers (Solidaridad de Trabajadores Vascos, ELA-STV). Finally, the third most important confederation in the public sector is the Independent and Civil Servant Central Trade Union (Confederación Sindical Indepdendiente y de Funcionarios, CSIF).
UGT’s last congress was held in March 2016, and Mr Pepe Álvarez was elected as the new General Secretary (he replaced Mr Cándido Méndez, who had been General Secretary of UGT trade union for 22 years). CCOO’s last congress was held in June 2017, and they named a new General Secretary, Mr Unai Sordo (replacing Mr Ignacio Fernández Toxo, who had spent 9 years in that position).
Since the 1990s, the most important trade unions at national level, UGT and CCOO, have maintained a cooperative relationship and unity of action. They have also maintained their representativeness.
The most important changes relate to the mergers of federations that both trade unions carried out in 2014. CCOO merged the Federation of Textile, Chemical and Related Activities (FITEQA-CCOO) into the Industry Federation (CCOO INDUSTRIA). It also merged the Federation of Commerce, Hotels and Restaurants, Tourism and Gambling (FECOHT-CCOO) with the Federation of Financial Services (COMFIA-CCOO) into the new Federation of Services. Meanwhile, in 2014, UGT merged the Federation of Transport (TCM-UGT) and the Federation of Commerce, Hotels and Restaurants, Catering Trade, Tourism and Gambling (CHTJ-UGT) into the new Federation of Services for Mobility and Consumption (SMC-UGT).
More recently, in May 2016, new federations were created within the UGT structure: Federation of Public Services employees – formed by the previous public services federation (FeSP) and education federation (FEYE) – and FICA,formed by the union of the Federation of Metal and Construction (MCA) and the Federation of Agriculture (Fitag).
For both unions, the mergers were carried out in order to combat the reduction in public financing.
Employers’ organisations
About employers’ representation
Employers’ organisations do not have a legal text that regulates their rights and obligations, like the trade unions do with the Organic Law of Trade Union Freedom (1985).
The procedures to verify the representativeness of the employers’ organisations are not clearly established. There is a lack of official and institutional procedures to check if the employers’ organisations that claim to be representative meet the legal requirements. In addition, there are no official publications of affiliation figures to employers’ organisations. As such, the only figures available are those provided by the employers’ organisations themselves.
The absence of figures on employers’ organisation membership does not mean a lack of legitimacy or social recognition of the most representative associations at national level. In fact, the ‘most representative’ employers’ organisations – the Spanish Confederation of Employers’ Organisations (CEOE) and the Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (CEPYME) – are recognised by the employers, trade unions and government. Moreover, there are no potential competitors that can challenge their status.
In November 2018, Mr. Antonio Garamendi was elected as the new president of CEOE. Mr Garamendi was the only candidate in the elections and was elected by acclamation. He will replace Mr Juan Rosell, who had been president since December 2010. Until the elections, Mr Garamendi was president of CEPYME, the Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises.
Employers’ organisations – membership and density
|
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
Source |
|
|
Employers’ organisation density in terms of active employees |
n.a. |
36% |
n.a. |
n.a. |
n.a. |
Visser (2014) |
|
Employers’ organisation density in private sector establishments* |
n.a. |
n.a. |
n.a. |
n.a. |
n.a. |
European Company Survey 2013 |
*Percentage of employees working in an establishment that is a member of any employers’ organisation that is involved in collective bargaining.
Main employers’ organisations
The Spanish Confederation of Employers’ Organisations (CEOE) and the Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (CEPYME) are the most representative employers’ organisations. There are no official publications of the affiliation figures of the employers’ organisations, but CEOE claims to represent 2 million companies and 12 million employees through its 225 federations. CEPYME does not provide figures of companies and employees.
Main employers’ organisations and confederations
|
Long name |
Abbreviation |
Members |
Year |
Involved in collective bargaining |
|
Spanish Confederation of Employers’ Organisations |
CEOE |
2 million companies (through its federations* |
2019 |
Yes |
|
CEPYME |
CEPYME |
57 territorial federations and 49 sectoral federations** |
2016 |
Yes |
*Source: CEOE website.
**Source: CEPYME website.
Tripartite and bipartite bodies and concertation
The main tripartite body is the Spanish Social and Economic Council (Consejo Económico y Social). It is a consultative body created in 1991 that submits reports to the government before laws and royal-decrees are enacted. Moreover, it analyses and studies different elements and topics under its own initiative. In most regions, there is a tripartite Social and Economic Council with similar functions and composition to the national one. However, in some regions these bodies ceased their activities due to lack of funding.
The so-called Industrial Observatories are important tripartite bodies operating at the sectoral level. There are 10 observatories in different industry sectors and in the construction sector. These tripartite bodies were created in 2005 in order to improve and extend the analytical information on the sectors. The aim of the observatories is to foster debate and to identify strengths and weakness in order to promote efficient industrial policies. However, their activity has dramatically decreased since the onset of the crisis, and nowadays they are practically dismantled. Finally, another tripartite body is the National Consultative Commission of Collective Agreements (Comisión Consultiva Nacional de Convenios Colectivos), created by Royal Decree 1362/2012. It is a consultative body for aspects such as proposing and determining the functional scope of collective agreements. It is also involved in monitoring collective agreements, including information, studies, documentation and diffusion of them.
The most important bipartite body is the Interconfederal Service of Mediation and Arbitration (Servicio Interconfederal de Mediación y Arbitraje, SIMA). It is financed entirely by the state and managed autonomously by the social partners. It manages industrial conflicts by offering industrial dispute resolution mechanisms.
In spite of the existence of tripartite and bipartite bodies, social pacts and peak inter-sectoral agreements are not negotiated under any of the existing institutional bodies.
With regard to bipartite agreements, since the mid-1990s peak intersectoral agreements for collective bargaining have been signed between the most representative trade unions and employer organisations. These agreements were signed, with only a short interruption in the crisis in 2012, 2015 and more recently in 2018. Even though these are not mandatory agreements and only provide guidelines on different issues, such as pay increases, they nonetheless provide some degree of coordination and a general framework for collective bargaining.
With the advent of the sovereign debt crisis and the implementation of austerity policies, tripartite social dialogue was discontinued. Only since 2014, with the start of the economic recovery, some tripartite pacts on specific issues have been signed. Tripartite social dialogue seems to have gained momentum in 2018 when agreements on youth employment and decent work were signed.
Main tripartite and bipartite bodies
|
Name |
Type |
Level |
Issues covered |
|
Spanish Social and Economic Council |
Tripartite |
National |
Employment and social policies – consultative body role |
|
Regional Social and Economic Councils |
Tripartite |
Regional |
Employment and social policies – consultative body role |
|
Industrial Observatories |
Tripartite |
Sectoral |
Industrial policy |
|
Interconfederal Service of Mediation and Arbitration |
Bipartite |
National |
Manages industrial conflicts by offering industrial dispute resolution mechanisms |
Workplace-level employee representation
The main bodies for workplace-level representation in the private sector are workers’ delegates and workers’ committees. In the public sector, workplace-level representation is done through the so-called ‘Juntas de Personal’.
Workers’ delegates are responsible for representing workers in establishments and workplaces between 11 and 49 employees. There may also be a workers’ delegate in undertakings with 6 to 10 employees, provided that it is a decision reached by the majority of the employees. In undertakings with up to 30 employees there may be one workers’ delegate, and three workers’ delegates in undertakings with between 31 and 49 employees.
Workers’ committees are employee representative bodies in workplaces with a staff of 50 or more workers. In the case of companies with two or more establishments in the same province or bordering municipalities with fewer than 50 employees in each workplace but with 50 or more employees as a whole, a joint workers’ committee may be established (Article 64, TRET).
In addition, workers affiliated to a union can constitute a so-called trade union’s section within the enterprise.
Elections for workers’ delegates and workers’ committee members can be called by the most representative trade union organisations (those that have a membership of at least 10% of company representatives or employees in a workplace by majority agreement). Those who call the elections must inform the company and the public labour authorities of their intentions at least one month in advance. In addition, elections may be called at a more general level in one or several functional or territorial areas, subject to the agreement of the most representative trade unions.
According to Spanish legislation, these bodies can also exercise I&C rights and can conclude company collective agreements. In this regard, it is worth noting that a recent regulation (Royal-decree 7/2011) gave priority to the trade union’s sections over work councils in order to conclude company collective agreements, when these trade unions have a majority of seats in the workers’ committee.
According to the ECS, the percentage of establishments that have any form of employee representation increased from 53% in 2009 to 57% in 2013.
Regulation, composition and competences of the bodies
|
Regulation |
Composition |
Competences of the body Involved in company-level collective bargaining?? |
Thresholds/rules when they need to be/can be set up |
|
|
Workers’ delegates/ Delegados de personal |
Revised text of the Workers’ Statute – Official State Journal, 29 March 1995, no. 75/1995 (TRET) |
Workers in establishments and workplaces with 11–49 employees |
Yes |
They are freely set up by employees. Elections can be called by the most representative trade union organisations.* |
|
Workers’ committees/ Comités de empresa |
Revised text of the Workers’ Statute – Official State Journal, 29 March 1995, no. 75/1995 (TRET) |
Workers in workplaces with a staff of 50 or more workers |
Yes |
They are freely set up by employees. Elections can be called by the most representative trade union organisations.* |
|
Trade union’s sections/ Secciones Sindicales |
Revised text of the Workers’ Statute – Official State Journal, 29 March 1995, no. 75/1995 (TRET) (Royal-decree 7/2011) |
Trade union members |
Yes |
Workers affiliated to a union can constitute a trade union’s section. |
* According to the Law, the most representative trade unions are those that constitute 10% of workers’ delegates and members of workers’ committees at state level and 15% within the autonomous communities. Similarly, trade unions that have a membership of 10% or more of workers’ delegates and members of workers’ committees in a specific territorial and functional sphere will be considered representative within that scope.
Industrial action and disputes
Industrial action and disputes
Legal aspects
The right to strike is regulated in Royal-decree 17/1977, the Spanish Constitution and a judgment of the Constitutional Court (11/1981).
According to the regulation, legally there are two types of industrial action: the strike (la huelga) and the lockout ( cierre patronal). The strike is a collective action by workers consisting of the agreed withdrawal of their labour. It is normally directed against the employer to back up the collective bargaining process and force compliance with statutory or contractual regulations.
On the other hand, the lockout is an industrial action taken unilaterally by the employer and consisting of the total or partial cessation of production activity. The premise may be the physical closure of the company or some other action taken to prevent the performance of work. To protect the right to strike, Spanish legislation allows lockouts only when persons or property are in danger, as a policing measure. However, it is a measure rarely put into practice by employers.
In Spain, a strike can be called by the majority of employees’ representatives at the workplace, by all the employees of a company (by simple majority) and by the trade unions that are representative in a sector. The decision to call a strike must be communicated to the company and to the labour authority five days before it is to be held. For public companies, the notification period is 10 days. Finally, a strike committee made up of a maximum of 12 members must also be constituted.
During the strike, labour contracts become suspended. The right to strike is an individual right that is collectively exercised. Thus, individual workers are free to choose whether or not to participate.
The only strikes that are forbidden are political strikes, solidarity strikes and strikes that aim to challenge a collective agreement that is in force, but Spain has a tradition of these types of strikes, often taking the form of general strike (because of the prohibition).
Recently, due to the Spanish Penal Code reform (Organic Law 1/2015), a change has been introduced on the strike issue. Article 315.3 states that those acting in a group or individually, but in agreement with others, who coerce other persons to initiate or continue a strike shall be punished with imprisonment for one year and nine months up to three years or with a fine of eighteen months to twenty-four months.
Incidence of different forms of industrial action between 2010 and 2013
|
Work-to-rule or refusal to do overtime |
|
|
Work stoppage or strike for less than a day |
14% |
|
Strike of a day or more |
24% |
|
Blockade or occupation |
3% |
Note: Percentage of private sector establishments reporting any form of industrial action during the indicated period.
Source: European Company Survey 2013.
Industrial action developments, 2012–2017
|
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
|
|
Total working days lost |
1,290,114 |
1,098,480 |
620,568 |
497,483 |
388,912 |
851,444 |
|
Number of strikes |
878 |
994 |
777 |
615 |
641 |
731 |
|
Main reasons |
Labour reasons: 825 Non-labour reasons: 53 |
Labour reasons: 952 Non-labour reasons: 42 |
Labour reasons: 682 Non-labour reasons: 95 |
Labour reasons: 572 Non-labour reasons: 43 |
Labour reasons: 614 Non-labour reasons: 27 |
Labour reasons: 723 Non-labour reasons: 8 |
Source: ‘Strikes developed, workers participating and days not worked, by sectoral, institutional, territorial and motivation aspects’ ( Huelgas desarrolladas, trabajadores participantes y jornadas no trabajadas, por ámbitos sectorial, institucional, territorial y por motivación), Official statistics on labour conflicts from the Spanish Ministry of Employment and Social Security.
Dispute resolution mechanisms
Collective dispute resolution mechanisms
In 1996, the Agreement on the Extrajudicial Resolution of Labour Conflicts (Acuerdo de Solución Extrajudicial de Conflictos, ASEC) was concluded. It was renewed in 2012 until 2016 by the UGT, CCOO (the unions) and CEOE and CEPYME (the employers’ organisations). This agreement opened the door for the creation of the private foundation administered by the Interconfederal Service of Mediation and Arbitration (SIMA) ( Servicio Interconfederal de Mediación y Arbitraje), financed entirely by the state and managed autonomously by the social partners. It provides free services, similar to those of the joint institutions of the communities.
According to the Agreement, the procedures and aspects covered include:
- The interpretation and application of a state legislation, collective agreement, agreement or pact, whatever its effectiveness, or a decision or practice of the company.
- Conflicts that arise from the negotiation of a collective agreement that entail its blockade.
- Conflicts that lead to a blockade in the negotiation, agreement or collective agreement.
- Conflicts that arise from the call for a strike or from arrangements about security and maintenance services in the event of a strike.
- Conflicts that affect several work centres of a company, group of companies, or related companies, located in different autonomous communities.
Individual dispute resolution mechanisms
In the case of individual conflicts, first there are conflicts of law, that is, conflicts that concern the interpretation of laws or arise from the implementation of collective agreements. These conflicts can be submitted to a judicial process that will start once the suit has been presented by either party, with a compulsory attempt at conciliation in the administrative headquarters by means of conciliation bodies created through agreements reached between the trade unions and employers’ organisations.
As far as administrative conflicts are concerned, the conciliation process will be carried out in the presence of a conciliating lawyer assigned by the state, whose role will be limited to merely facilitating an understanding. He or she will refrain from making proposals. If the two parties fail to reach an agreement, they can call for institutional arbitration. Here, the parties, at their own will, submit their conflict to the decision of a person outside the Justice Administration (a civil servant lawyer who is appointed by the state and is not a judge). He or she will issue a binding award that must be abided by and will have the same effect as a ruling issued by a judge that cannot be appealed. If the process of conciliation and/or arbitration concludes without agreement, the following phase will be carried out in the social courts.
Finally, conflicts can be submitted to the social courts. These are organised according to their juridical competences at regional level (High Court) and at national level (the National Court and the Supreme Court).
The table below presents information on the number of collective conflicts solved through judicial mechanisms and those managed through SIMA and regional out-of-court conflict resolution mechanisms. What we can observe is that with the economic recovery, the number of conflicts solved through judicial or non-judicial mechanisms has declined very significantly.
Use of collective dispute resolution mechanisms
|
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
|
|
Total |
352,998 |
354,278 |
356,427 |
364,356 |
343,779 |
334,724 |
|
Judicial Collective Conflicts |
2,726 |
2,920 |
3,618 |
2,934 |
3,053 |
2,294 |
|
Judicial Individual Conflicts |
275,867 |
276,959 |
273,057 |
267,794 |
249,908 |
243,638 |
|
Total |
523,471 |
551,421 |
475,383 |
426,389 |
422,156 |
432,564 |
|
Solved through Administrative processes of SIMA |
488,185 |
513,406 |
442,579 |
397,719 |
392,731 |
397,554 |
|
Collective conciliation |
806 |
796 |
554 |
396 |
391 |
432 |
|
Individual conciliation |
487,331 |
512,421 |
441,934 |
39,7281 |
392,294 |
397,093 |
|
Mediation |
48 |
189 |
91 |
42 |
46 |
29 |
|
Solved through the Regional Out-of-Court Mechanisms for dispute resolution |
35,286 |
38,015 |
32,804 |
28,670 |
29,425 |
35,010 |
|
Individual conciliation |
29,932 |
30,405 |
27,479 |
23,789 |
24,321 |
29,894 |
|
Collective conciliation |
5,308 |
7,541 |
5,283 |
4,832 |
5,062 |
5,073 |
|
Arbitration |
46 |
69 |
42 |
49 |
42 |
43 |
Source: Evolution of judicial conflicts and those managed through SIMA (2012–2017), Boletín de Estadísticas Laborales
Individual employment relations
Individual employment relations
Individual employment relations are the relationship between the individual worker and their employer. This relationship is shaped by legal regulation and by the outcomes of social partner negotiations over the terms and conditions governing the employment relationship. This section looks into the start and termination of the employment relationship and entitlements and obligations in Spain.
Start and termination of the employment relationship
Requirements regarding an employment contract
The minimum working age for starting an employment relationship is 16 years. Once the employment contract is signed, the company must tell the Public Employment Service the conditions of the contract and send a copy of it no more than 10 days later. Another copy of the contract must be submitted to the employees’ representatives at the workplace.
Dismissal and termination procedures
Employers are required to notify their workforce of planned redundancies 15 days in advance. This applies for both collective and individual redundancies. This notice period applies to all the employees irrespective of their tenure. In 2010, the notice period was reduced from one month to two weeks by Royal-Decree Law 10/2010. The Spanish economy appears to be more flexible now than the average OECD countries in this area, since average notice periods in OECD countries are 3.5 weeks for workers with 9 months’ tenure at the time of dismissal, 1.3 months for workers with 4 years’ tenure and 2.7 months for workers with 20 years’ tenure at the time of dismissal.
In the event of collective dismissal (more than five employees if the whole workforce is affected; at least 10 employees in companies with fewer than 100 employees; 10% of the employees in companies with 100–300 employees; and 30 employees in companies with more than 299 employees), legislation requires that employees are paid a minimum legal compensation of 20 days’ pay for each year of service, up to a maximum of 12 months’ pay.
In the event of individual unfair dismissal of an employee who has an open-ended contract, legislation requires that employees are paid a minimum legal compensation of 33 days’ pay for each year of service, up to a maximum of 24 months’ pay.
In the event of individual fair dismissal, legislation requires that employees are paid a minimum legal compensation of 20 days’ pay for each year of service, up to maximum of 12 months’ pay.
In enterprises with fewer than 25 employees, the Public Fund of Wage Warranty (Fondo de Garantía Salarial) will pay 40% of the legal indemnification of employees in collective redundancies.
Severance pay for temporary contracts was modified by Royal-Decree 10/2010, which established that as of 1 January 2015, severance pay will increase annually by one day per year of service, from the eight days per year of service paid in 2010 to 12 days. Accordingly, in 2014 severance pay for temporary contracts was 11 days per year worked. If the employer dismisses the temporary worker before his or her contract expires, severance pay will be equal to 33 days’ pay for each year of service, up to maximum of 24 months’ pay.
On this subject, a polemical decision was pronounced by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in September 2016 (C-596/14). Under Spanish Law, permanent employees get 20 days per worked year as severance pay, whereas temporary workers get 12 days when they are laid off, and temporary substitutes ( interinos in Spanish) do not get any compensation. In a judgment issued on 14 September 2016, the European Court of Justice established that temporary substitutes also have the right to receive severance pay, and that the amount received by temporary workers and permanent workers should not be different because of the type of their contracts, on the legal grounds of the Framework Agreement on fixed-term work (Annex of the Council Directive 1999/70/EC).
This sentence has created great uncertainty on the subject in Spain, because according to the Court decision, both temporary workers and temporary substitutes should have the same compensation as the rest of the employees (20 days, up to maximum of 12 months’ pay).
Currently, the Spanish regulation is still the same (no severance pay for temporary substitutes), although more similar cases have reached the ECJ and the Spanish High Court and are awaiting sentence. It seems that the legislator will wait until these pending cases are resolved, in order to regulate the issue based on a more consolidated jurisprudence. So, in future the repercussions of the ECJ decision remain to be seen.
Entitlements and obligations
Parental, maternity and paternity leave
In Spain, maternity leave gives mothers the right to take 6 weeks of paid leave after the birth plus 10 weeks that can be shared between the mother and father. These 10 weeks can be taken full time and part time.
Law 3/2007 for the effective equality between men and women introduced an individual right to paternity leave equal to 13 days, irrespective of the mother’s right to maternity leave. Social Security statistics show that from 2007 to September 2016, more than two million workers availed of this entitlement. From 2014 to 2015, a slight increase in the use of this right was observed, from 235,678 in 2014 to 238,806 in 2015.
Statutory leave arrangements
|
Maternity leave |
|
|
Maximum duration |
16 weeks that can be extended to 18 weeks in the case of the birth or the adoption of a child with disabilities. A minimum of 6 weeks must be taken after the birth by the mother. The following 10 weeks can be shared between the mother and father. the mother. |
|
Reimbursement |
100% of the regulatory base |
|
Who pays? |
Social Security (Seguridad Social) |
|
Legal basis |
Law 4/1995, Law 3/2007 |
|
Parental leave |
|
|
Maximum duration |
16 weeks that can be extended to 18 weeks in the case of the birth or the adoption of a child with disabilities. A minimum of 6 weeks must be taken after the birth by the mother. The following 10 weeks can be shared between the mother and father. |
|
Reimbursement |
100% of the regulatory base |
|
Who pays? |
Social Security (Seguridad Social) |
|
Legal basis |
Law 4/1995, Law 3/2007 |
|
Paternity leave |
|
|
Maximum duration |
5 weeks that will be extended in two days after the second child. The period can also be extended in case of an adoption or a child with disability |
|
Reimbursement |
100% of the regulatory base |
|
Who pays? |
Social Security (Seguridad Social) |
|
Legal basis |
Law 3/2007, Law 9/2009, Royal Decree 295/2009, Law 6/2018 |
The duration of parental leave was extended from four to five weeks on 5 July 2018. In September 2017, the Popular Party and Ciudadanos agreed to extend the paternity leave to five weeks from the following year onwards. However, in January 2018, this agreement was still subject to the approval of the 2018 Budget Law, so the extension had not been applied in practice (and parental leave was still four weeks long).The Socialist government finally announced this measure as part of the Budget Law 6/2018.
Sick leave
In order to be eligible for sick leave, the employee must have contributed to the Social Security for 180 days during the five years prior to the date of leave in case of common illness. In case of a labour accident, no contribution period is required.
The benefit amount payable is determined on the basis of contributions that are established according to salaries. For the first three days of a common illness, the employee will not receive any benefit. Between the fourth day and the twentieth day, the replacement rate is 60% of the regulatory base. After the twentieth day, the replacement rate is 75% of the regulatory base. In case of a labour accident, the replacement rate is 75% of the regulatory base from the first day.
Retirement age
The retirement age was increased in 2011 (Law 27/2011) from 65 to 67 years of age. This postponement is being applied progressively between 2013 and 2027, increasing by one month per year until 2018, then by two months per year from 2019 to 2027. Workers are able to retire at the age of 65 years and benefit from maximum pension rights if the contributions they have paid to the Social Security amount to 38 years and 6 months.
The period of contribution that is taken to determine the regulatory basis of the pension has risen from 15 to 25 years. This rise is being applied gradually, increasing by one year from 2013 to 2022.
Women who have interrupted their careers as a consequence of a birth or adoption will be able to claim 9 months of contributions per child before the age of 67 years, up to a maximum of 2 years.
Pay
Pay
Pay: For workers, the reward for work and main source of income; for employers, a cost of production and focus of bargaining and legislation. This section looks into minimum wage setting in Spain and guides the reader to further material on collective wage bargaining.
In 2016, the average annual wage for men was €25,924 (€25,668 in 2011) and € 20,131 (€19,768 in 2011) for women. Since late 2014, the Spanish economy has recorded positive growth rates and employment creation; however, this economic improvement was not reflected in salary levels. The report Graphic analysis of the salary devaluation in Spain published in 2015 by the trade union CCOO concludes that internal devaluation affected particularly those groups who were already earning the lowest salaries, as well as those who lost their job and found a new one (usually with a lower salary). Moreover, the increase in part-time work levels also contributed to the decrease in average wages. Furthermore, the report states that salary devaluation was leading to a decrease in workers’ purchasing power. The factors behind salary devaluation were said to be mainly employment destruction, labour precariousness and the 2010 and 2012 labour reforms. It is suggested that salary devaluation was a core strategy in the adjustment plan of the Spanish economy, used as a tool for recovering lost competitiveness.
Figures on average annual wages in 2011 and 2016 are provided in the table below.
Average annual wages per worker (in euro), 2011–2016
|
2011 |
2016 |
|||
|
NACE |
Women |
Men |
Women |
Men |
|
TOTAL |
19,768 |
25,668 |
20,131 |
25,924 |
|
B: Mining and quarrying |
n.a. |
29,602 |
35,133 |
31,965 |
|
C: Manufacturing |
20,683 |
26,923 |
22,262 |
28,256 |
|
D: Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply |
n.a. |
51,612 |
44,147 |
52,960 |
|
E: Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities |
21,066 |
26,725 |
23,185 |
27,154 |
|
F: Construction |
21,030 |
22,784 |
20,361 |
22,461 |
|
G: Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles |
16,141 |
22,924 |
16,727 |
22,826 |
|
H: Transportation and storage |
21,664 |
23,821 |
22,176 |
24,010 |
|
I: Accommodation and food service activities |
12,646 |
16,217 |
12,609 |
15,908 |
|
J: Information and communication |
28,464 |
34,991 |
28,834 |
34,475 |
|
K: Financial and insurance activities |
35,428 |
46,859 |
36,940 |
49,258 |
|
L: Real estate activities |
17,988 |
24,150 |
17,809 |
25,173 |
|
M: Professional, scientific and technical activities |
21,158 |
30,461 |
21,943 |
31,967 |
|
N: Administrative and support service activities |
13,246 |
19,763 |
13,309 |
19,750 |
|
O: Public administration and defence; compulsory social security |
25,851 |
29,878 |
27,547 |
30,712 |
|
P: Education |
20,798 |
23,272 |
21,622 |
23,663 |
|
Q: Human health and social work activities |
23,893 |
33,198 |
23,655 |
33,723 |
|
R: Arts, entertainment and recreation |
15,841 |
19,873 |
15,209 |
19,367 |
|
S: Other service activities |
14,315 |
22,305 |
13,689 |
20,196 |
Source: Salary Structure Survey (Encuesta de Estructural Salarial). National Institute of Statistics (INE)
Minimum wages
The determination of the minimum wage is regulated in Article 27.1 of the Statute of Workers’ Rights. It establishes that the minimum wage will be determined by taking the following four factors into consideration:
- the annual consumer prices index (Índice de Precios al Consumo);
- the national productivity average;
- the contribution of labour to the gross national income;
- the general economic context.
However, it is does not set out how every factor will be taken into consideration.
There is no distinction made between youth and adult minimum wage rates.
Even though it is standard practice is for the government to consult social partners about the increase of the minimum wage, and then approve it, unilateral government wage setting without negotiating or even consulting the social partners has been the norm in recent years. The current Socialist government set the minimum wage for 2019 at €900 per month without negotiating or formally consulting the social partners. One of the conditions of the political party Podemos to support the Socialist government headed by Mr Pedro Sánchez was the commitment to raise the minimum wage to €1,000. The Socialist party was more inclined to bring it to €850, but under the pressure of Podemos decided to leave it at €900. In an intervention in the tripartite Social and Economic Council in early December 2018, the Ministry of Employment admitted the lack of any involvement of social partners and apologised for this to the general secretaries of the main trade unions and employer organisations. The Minister justified this unilateral intervention with the need to improve significantly the situation of the worst-off in the economy.
The amount of the minimum wage in 2012–2019 was as follows:
- 2012: €641.40
- 2013: €645.30
- 2014: €645.30
- 2015: €648.60
- 2016: €655.20
- 2017: €707.60
- 2018: €735.90
- 2019: €900.00
For more information regarding the level and development of minimum wages, please see:
- Publication - Statutory Minimum wages in 2019 – Annual review
- Eurostat: Minimum wage statistics
Collectively agreed pay outcomes
For more detailed information on the most recent outcomes in terms of collectively agreed pay, please see:
- Topic: Collective bargaining
- Publication: Developments in collectively agreed pay 2000–2017
Working time
Working time
Working time: ‘Any period during which the worker is working, at the employer’s disposal and carrying out his activities or duties, in accordance with national laws and/or practice’ (Directive 2003/88/EC). This section briefly summarises regulation and issues regarding working time, overtime, part-time work as well as working time flexibility in Spain.
Working time regulation
In Spain, working time is set up by law and collective bargaining. The law provides basic standards that must be respected by all the collective agreements with regard to maximum working hours per day, rest periods and annual paid leave. Collective bargaining regulates the distribution of working time but respects the statutory legal provisions. Sectoral collective agreements provide general guidelines for working time in the sector, and this is then adapted at company level.
For more detailed information on working time (including annual leave, statutory and collectively agreed working time), please consult:
- Publication: Working time developments in the 21st century: Work duration and its regulation in the EU
Overtime regulation
The statutory maximum working day is established by law at 9 hours (unless the social partners have agreed on a different number, and except for workers younger than 18 years, who cannot work more than 8 hours per day). The statutory maximum working day can be changed by means of collective bargaining up to a maximum of 80 extra hours distributed throughout the year. The 80 extra hours limit will not apply in cases of emergency or urgent need to repair extraordinary damages, but the additional amount will be paid regardless to the worker.
Part-time work
In Spain, the percentage of part-time workers has traditionally been low – it was 12% before the crisis (2007) and reached 14.8% in the third quarter of 2018. The percentage of women working part time is higher (24.2% by the end of 2018). Although the number of men working part time has slightly increased in the last few years, differences between sexes are still very pronounced. However, the most important feature of part-time work in Spain at this time is its relationship with precariousness. Working part time is mainly an involuntary decision in Spain and this has been exacerbated by the crisis. According to the Spanish Labour Force Survey, in the third quarter of 2018, 52.7% of employees who work part time wanted to have a full-time job.
Persons employed part-time in Spain and EU28 (% of total employment)
|
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
|
|
Total (EU28) |
18.6 |
19 |
19 |
19 |
18.9 |
18.7 |
18.5 |
|
Total (Spain) |
14.2 |
15.5 |
15.6 |
15.5 |
14.9 |
14.6 |
14.2 |
|
Women (EU28) |
31.4 |
31.8 |
31.7 |
31.5 |
31.4 |
31.1 |
30.8 |
|
Women (Spain) |
23.7 |
25 |
25.3 |
24.9 |
23.9 |
23.9 |
23.6 |
|
Men (EU28) |
7.7 |
8.1 |
8.2 |
8.2 |
8.2 |
8.1 |
8 |
|
Men (Spain) |
6.3 |
7.5 |
7.5 |
7.6 |
7.4 |
6.9 |
6.4 |
Source: Eurostat Labour Force Survey [lfsi_pt_a] – Persons employed part-time (20 to 64 years of age) – total and by sex.
Involuntary part-time
Involuntary part-time workers can be defined as those working part time because they could not find a full-time job. As could be expected, the evolution of involuntary part-time work in Spain follows a counter-cyclical pattern as it increases in periods of crisis (as workers find it more difficult to find a job, and in particular a full-time job) and declines when the economy is growing.
Persons employed in involuntary part-time in the Spain and EU28 (% of total part-time employment)
|
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
|
|
Total (EU28) |
27.7 |
29.3 |
29.6 |
29.1 |
27.7 |
26.4 |
24.8 |
|
Total (Spain) |
61.3 |
63.3 |
64 |
63.2 |
61.9 |
61.1 |
55.8 |
|
Women (EU28) |
24.5 |
26 |
26.3 |
25.7 |
24.6 |
23.2 |
22.1 |
|
Women (Spain) |
58.7 |
60.8 |
61.8 |
60.1 |
59.8 |
58.2 |
53.5 |
|
Men (EU28) |
38.5 |
39.9 |
40.2 |
39.9 |
37.6 |
36.2 |
33.4 |
|
Men (Spain) |
68.9 |
70.1 |
70 |
71.9 |
67.8 |
68.5 |
63 |
Source: Eurostat Labour Force Survey [lfsa_eppgai]- involuntary part-time employment as a percentage of the total part-time employment, by sex and age (20 to 64 years of age)
Night work
The work done between 22.00 and 06.00 is considered to be night work. A night worker is a person who normally works during the night period no less than 3 hours of his or her work day, as well as a person who foresees that no less than one third of his or her annual working day will be done during the night period (Source: the Statute of Workers’ Rights).
Shift work
Shift work is considered to be all kinds of teamwork organisation, in which workers take up successively the same work positions, according to a certain pace of work– continuous or discontinuous – implying for the worker the need to offer his or her services in different hours over a given period of days or weeks (Source: the Statute of Workers’ Rights).
Weekend work
In the Spanish labour legislation there is no provision for weekend work. A similar figure in the legislation is work during the rest days ( Descanso semanal) (Source: the Statute of Workers’ Rights).
Rest and breaks
Rest and breaks terms are defined as periods of time when the worker is not obliged to provide their services to the employer. Workers have the right to rest days, which can be accumulated in periods up to 14 days, of a day and a half uninterrupted. As a general rule, it involves Saturday afternoon, or Monday morning, and the entire day of Sunday. Also, there is the right to have a break for 15 minutes if 6 uninterrupted hours are worked during the day.
The government, on the proposal of the Minister of Employment and Social Security and having previously consulted the most relevant trade unions and employers’ organisations, can establish extensions and reductions in the duration of the work day and rests, for those sectors and services that because of their particularities demand it. (Source: the Statute of Workers’ Rights)
Working time flexibility
Working time flexibility is regulated by collective bargaining or individual contracts under the limits established by the law. According to the Spanish legislation, 10% of the annual working time can be distributed irregularly throughout the year, thus increasing the maximum working hours (40 hours) in some weeks. In addition, overtime can be compensated with rest.
Health and well-being
Health and well-being
Maintaining health and well-being should be high-priority for workers and employers alike. Health is an asset closely associated with a person’s quality of life and longevity, as well as their ability to work. A healthy economy depends on a healthy workforce; organisations lose productivity through ill-health of their workers. This section looks into psychosocial risks and health and safety in Spain.
Health and safety at work
Health and Safety at work is regulated in Chapter X of the Workers’ Statute, which details those bodies in charge of monitoring the right application of health and safety regulations as well as the employers’ obligations in relation to preventing accidents at work.
According to Eurostat figures on accidents at work (see the table below), Spain has improved health and safety at work over the last few years. The number of accidents has continuously decreased since 2009, with a slight increase in 2016. The most pronounced drop in the number of accidents was recorded in 2009 and 2013. Unfortunately, in 2014, a small increase in the number of accidents was recorded. With the economic recovery and the important role of the construction sector, the number of accidents has increased again after having fallen during the crisis.
Accidents at work, with four days’ absence or more – working days lost
|
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
|
|
All accidents |
590,989 |
441,616 |
401,386 |
363,510 |
281,045 |
273,983 |
287,809 |
312,542 |
331,612 |
|
Percentage change on previous year (%) |
-25.3 |
-9.1 |
-9.4 |
-22.7 |
-2.5 |
5.0 |
8.6 |
6.1 |
|
|
Per 1,000 employees |
35.1 |
27.8 |
25.8 |
23.6 |
19.3 |
19.5 |
20.2 |
21.2 |
21.8 |
Source: Eurostat, [hsw_mi01] and [lfsa_eegaed]
Psychosocial risks
Spain does not have specific legislation on psychosocial risks. However, Law 31/1995, which transposed the Health and Safety at Work Framework Council Directive 89/391 to Spanish law, makes some references to these risks. For instance, Article 4.7.d. states that the organisation and management can affect the magnitude of the risks the workers are exposed to. There are other provisions related to psychosocial risks too, such as the duty to adapt the job to the person (Article 15.1.d) and the need to implement prevention actions in a coherent plan that integrates technology, work organisation, working conditions, social relations and the influence of environmental factors at work (Article 15.1.g). The Labour and Social Security Inspectorate is in charge of enforcing these provisions.
More recently, the Spanish Strategy for Health and Safety at Work 2015-2020 (Estrategia Española de Seguridad y Salud en el Trabajo 2015-2020) includes the objective of promoting the participation of social partners and Autonomous Communities, and improving working and health conditions at work, especially in sectors, activities, collectives and companies with higher risk. More precisely, it includes developing and disseminating methodologies of psychosocial risks evaluation, which could lead to a better understanding and prevention of those risks.
Skills, learning and employability
Skills, learning and employability
Skills are the passport to employment; the better skilled an individual, the more employable they are. Good skills also tend to secure better-quality jobs and better earnings. This section briefly summarises the Spanish system for ensuring skills and employability and looks into the extent of training.
National system for ensuring skills and employability
Since the Organic Law 5/2002 of 19 June on qualifications and vocational education and training was approved, the main mechanism to identify and define vocational qualifications for both the Initial Vocational Education and Training system (IVET) and the Continuing Vocational Education and Training system (CVET) is the National Catalogue of Professional Qualifications (CNCP). The General Council on Vocational Education and Training (CGFP), together with the technical body, the National Institute of Vocational Qualifications (INCUAL), are in charge of identifying and updating the qualifications of the CNCP. They follow a demand-driven approach that aims to identify the most significant qualifications needed in the productive system.
The methodology for developing the standards is rather participative. It involves employers, trade unions and administrations at both the central and regional levels and works as follows. Professional qualifications are designed by working groups comprised of experts in the professional field and in vocational training. There are 26 working groups (one working group for each professional group). The working groups are proposed by the General Council on Vocational Education and Training (CGFP) and are directed by the INCUAL. The working group’s first task is to design and describe the unit of competence. The unit of competence is the minimum aggregate of competences that can be recognised. Units of competences are expressed as professional outcomes. Then the unit of competence is associated with a training module that includes learning outcomes and assessment criteria. Once the unit of competences and learning modules have been established, the INCUAL classifies and controls the outcomes. After that, the Council of Ministers can approve the qualification to be included in the CNCP after consulting with the CGFP, the Scholar State Council and the ministry affected. Qualifications must be updated at least every five years.
Training
The main national public institutions responsible for training regulation and development are the General Council on Vocational Education and Training (CGFP), the National Institute of Vocational Qualifications (INCUAL) and the State Foundation of Training for Employment (Fundae), former Tripartite Foundation of Training for Employment (Tripartita).
On 23 March 2015, the Royal Decree-Act reformed the Vocational Training System, in order to gain efficiency and transparency in the management of public resources, and established Fundae, the State Foundation for Employment Training ( Fundación Tripartita para la Formación en el Empleo). Nowadays, employers’ organisations and trade unions are no longer the principal training providers, and do not directly manage training programmes (for that purpose, they are now under the same conditions as other private training centres). However, social partners do take part in the design and planning of training programmes.
The composition of the foundation’s patronage has also changed, in that now the proportion of public administration representative members is higher: the state has 36 seats, Autonomous Communities 18 (one each) and social partners only 18 (representative unions 9 and main employers’ organisations 9).
According to the Annual Labour Survey (Encuesta Annual Laboral), 73.7% of Spanish companies provided some form of training to their employees in 2017. This number reaches 99% in the case of companies with more than 250 employees, but goes down to 66.1% in companies with 5–9 employees.
Work organisation
Work organisation
Work organisation underpins economic and business development and has important consequences for productivity, innovation and working conditions. Eurofound research finds that some types of work organisation are associated with a better quality of work and employment. Therefore, developing or introducing different forms of work organisation are of particular interest because of the expected effect on productivity, efficiency and competitiveness of companies, as well as on workers’ working conditions. Ongoing research by Eurofound, based on EurWORK, the European Working Conditions Survey and the European Company Survey, monitors developments in work organisation.
More information on:
For Spain, the European Company Survey 2013 shows that between 2010 and 2013, 49.4% of establishments with 10 or more employees reported changes in the use of technology, 40.9% introduced changes in ways to coordinate and allocate the work to workers and another 27.6% saw changes in their working time arrangements.
The Working and Living Conditions Survey ( Encuesta de Calidad de Vida en el Trabajo, ECVT) conducted by the Ministry of Employment in 2010 (the last year in which it was conducted) provides some information on work organisation and job satisfaction, but unfortunately it is not very recent.
In general, this survey, carried out in a relatively early stage of the crisis, shows that Spanish workers record positive ratings with regard to subjective indicators on job satisfaction. For instance, on a scale of 0 to 10, employees rate personal development at 7.6, 7.5 for autonomy and 7.2 for motivation. However, according to this same source, 38% of employees had a high or very high level of monotonous routine in their work tasks, 31% had a mid-level of monotony and 30.5% had a low or very low level of monotonous routine in their work tasks.
The contrast between subjective and objective factors related to job quality in Spain has been stressed by some authors (Prieto et al, 2009) who have called for multidimensional approaches to measure job quality.
The Ministry of Employment and Social Security publishes the Annual Labour Survey (Encuesta Anual Laboral). According to this survey, in 2017, some 25.5% of the surveyed companies applied internal flexibility measures. In 2013, the first year when this survey was conducted, 27% of the companies applied internal flexibility measures; however, these figures contrast with the lower percentages of 2014 (24.3%) and 2015 (20.7%). In 2016, 41.4% of all employees were working in companies which applied internal flexibility measures (46.1% in 2013; 42.2% in 2014; 37.2% in 2015). Normally, the use of this type of measure is more frequent in larger companies (54.3% of the companies with more than 499 workers applied these measures). Flexibility is mainly related to working time, whereas changes in wages have lost importance in recent years. In particular, in 2017, 14.7% of all the companies modified the type of working time (full-time or part-time), whereas 11.3% adapted/modified to some extent working time (e.g. distribution of working hours). Just 1.9% of companies changed the wage system or the wage amount (in contrast to 6.8% in 2013).
Equality and non-discrimination at work
Equality and non-discrimination at work
Article 4.2 of the Statute of Workers’ Rights formally acknowledges the right not to be discriminated against at work due to sex, civil status, social origin, race, religious or political ideas, affiliation to a trade union or by reason of language.
Law 14/2003 on the treatment of migration in Spain acknowledges as indirect discrimination the adoption of criteria that discriminate against a worker due to his or her nationality, religion, ethnicity or race.
Law 3/2007 on effective equality between men and women established that gender be mainstreamed in public policies in order to achieve effective equality in all areas of economic, social, cultural and political life.
Employees’ representatives at the workplace are responsible for ensuring equality at work.
Equal pay and gender pay gap
The main bodies ensuring equal pay for equal work are labour inspectors and employees’ representatives at the workplace.
The observed gender pay gap (unadjusted) declined in the years previous to the crisis. There was a recorded a drop from 22% in 2002 to 16% in 2008. However, since the onset of the crisis it has risen again; it was recorded at 18% in 2012. Research conducted by Murillo and Simon (2011) shows the same trend after 2008. According to them, the main factors that explain the new increase in the gender pay gap relate to the improvement of men’s wages due to the employment destruction in relatively low-wage sectors and the increase of the ‘glass ceiling’ effect. A more recent study by FEDEA (Anghel et al. 2018) showed that women earn on average 12.7% less (hourly earnings).
The most important legislative initiative aimed at combating gender pay discrimination was the Organic Law 3/2007, for Effective Equality between Women and Men. One of its main contributions directly affecting pay discrimination was the obligation to companies with over 250 workers to draw up and apply equality plans, which have to contain measures dealing with professional classification, promotion and training, and payroll retributions, among other issues.
An interesting social partner initiative is the Observatory of Measures and Equality Plans in Collective Bargaining, a body created by the General Workers Union (Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT) and financed by the European Social Fund and the Women’s Institute. This body publishes reports analysing how equality is treated in collective bargaining and in the equality plans. The last report was for 2013.
The Institute of Women, together with the Spanish Statistical Office (INE), publishes the report Women and Men in Spain (Mujeres y Hombres en España), which uses a group of indicators to review the situation of women in different aspects of society, including the labour market. The last report compiling all the data on the subject was issued in 2017.
Quota regulations
Organic Law 3/200 for Effective Equality between Women and Men introduced a quota regulation for electoral lists. Since 2007, a minimum of 40% people of each sex must be included in all the electoral lists for municipalities with a population higher than 5,000.
With regard to disadvantaged groups, Law 13/1982 regulated a quota of 2% of disabled workers in private and public companies with more than 50 employees. However, Royal-decree 364/2005 introduced some exceptions and provides alternative measures that companies can implement if they cannot hire a disabled worker.
Working life links
Working life links
Employers
- CEOE- Spanish Confederation of Employers' Organisations
- CEPYME- Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
- ACADE - private education employers
- AEDAVE - travel agencies
- AEFJ - toy manufacturing employers
- ANAIP - plastics employers
- ANATRANS - transport agencies
- ANCED - distance learning centres
- ANEFHOP - concrete manufacture
- ANFAC - motor manufacturing employers
- ANSEMAT - agriculture machinery employers
- ASCER - ceramic tile manufacture
- ASETA - Spanish Toll Road and Tunnel Association (En)
- ASIMELEC - electronics and communications employers
- ASNEF - credit institutions employers
- CECA - savings banks employers
- CECE - education employers
- CEOPAN - bakery employers
- CEPES - Spanish Business Confederation for Social Economy
- CNC - construction employers
- CONFEMADERA - wood industry employers
- Confemetal - Spanish Confederation of Metal Industries (En)
- FEFE - pharmaceuticals employers
- FEHR - catering employers
- FEIGRAF - graphical employers
- FEIQUE - chemicals employers
- FEOPE - fishing employers
- FEPEX - fruit and horticulture employers
- FIAB - food and drink industry employers (En)
- FICE - footwear industry
- OFICEM - cement producers
- SEDISI - IT employers
- SERNAUTO - auto components manufacturing employers
- UNESA - electricity industry employers
- UNESPA - insurance employers
Trade Unions CC.OO and Affiliates
- CC.OO - Trade Union Confederation of Workers' Commissions (En)
- FE - education workers' federation
- FES - health workers' federation
- Industry federation – CC.OO
- FSAP - public administration workers' federation
- Services federation – CC.OO
UGT and Affiliates
- UGT- General Union of Workers
- FETE-UGT - education workers' federation
- FESP-UGT - public service workers' federation
- FICA-UGT – industry, construction and agriculture federation
- UPA - small farmers' union
- SMC-UGT – Federation of Services for Mobility and Consumption
Other Union Organisations
- CNT-AIT - National Confederation of Labour
- CGT - General Confederation of Labour
- USO - Workers' Trade Union Confederation
- CIG - Galician trade union confederation
- CSI-CSIF - confederation of independent and civils servants' unions
- ANPE - education workers' union
- SEPLA - pilots' union
- SUP - police union
Government
- Ministry of Employment and Social Security
- Ministry of Finance and Public Administrations
- Institute of Women and Equal Opportunities
Other Links
Bibliography
Bibliography
Alós, R., Beneyto, P. J., Jódar, P., Molina, O., & Vidal, S. (2015). La representación sindical en España, Fundación 1 de mayo.
Anghel, B., Conde-Ruiz, J. I., & Marra de Artiñano, I. (2018), Brechas salariales de Género en España, FEDEA, Madrid.
Funcas (2015), La reforma laboral de 2012: primer balance (mayo - junio), nº 246, May 2015.
Miguélez, F. and Rebollo, O. (1999), ‘Negociación Colectiva en los noventa’, in F. Miguélez and C. Prieto (eds), Las relacíones de empleo en Espania, pp. 325-346. Madrid: Siglo veintiuno.
Prieto, C., Arnal, M., Caprile, M. and Potrony, J. (2009), La calidad del empleo: Una aproximación teórica y empírica, Ministerio de Trabajo e Inmigración. Madrid.
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