Royal Decree 32-2021 labor reform - part-time contract

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ROYAL DECREE-LAW 32/2021, OF DECEMBER 28, ON URGENT MEASURES FOR LABOR REFORM, THE GUARANTEE OF EMPLOYMENT STABILITY AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE LABOR MARKET

First article. Modification of the revised text of the Workers' Statute Law, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 2/2015, of October 23.

Three. Article 15 is modified, which is worded as follows:

«Article 15. Duration of the employment contract.

1. The employment contract is presumed to be concluded for an indefinite time.

The fixed-term employment contract may only be entered into due to production circumstances or substitution of a worker.

For it to be understood that justified cause of temporality concurs, it will be necessary to precisely specify in the contract the enabling cause of the temporary hiring, the specific circumstances that justify it and its connection with the expected duration.

2. For the purposes of the provisions of this article, Production circumstances are understood to be the occasional and unpredictable increase and the fluctuations that, even in the case of the normal activity of the company, generate a temporary mismatch between the stable employment available and that required, provided that it does not respond to the assumptions included. in article 16.1.

When the fixed-term contract obeys these production circumstances, its duration may not exceed six months. By sector-wide collective agreement, the maximum duration of the contract may be extended up to one year. It may be extended, by agreement of the parties, for a single time, without the total duration of the contract being able to exceed said maximum duration.

Likewise, companies may formalize contracts for production circumstances to attend to occasional, foreseeable situations that have a reduced and limited duration in the terms provided in this paragraph. Companies may only use this contract for a maximum of ninety days in the calendar year, regardless of the workers who are necessary to attend to the specific situations on each of those days, which must be duly identified in the contract. These ninety days cannot be used continuously.

3. Fixed-term contracts may be concluded for the replacement of a worker with the right to reserve a job, provided that the name of the person replaced and the cause of the replacement are specified in the contract. In this case, the provision of services may begin before the absence of the person replaced, coinciding in the development of the functions the time essential to guarantee the proper performance of the position and, at most, for fifteen days.

Likewise, the replacement contract may be concluded to complete the reduced working day by another worker, when said reduction is covered by causes legally established or regulated in the collective agreement and the name of the person replaced and the cause of the failure are specified in the contract. substitution.

The replacement contract may also be entered into for the temporary coverage of a job during the selection or promotion process for its definitive coverage by means of a fixed contract, without its duration being in this case exceeding three months.

4. Persons hired in breach of the provisions of this article will acquire the status of permanent.

5. Notwithstanding the foregoing, workers who in a period of twenty-four months had been hired for a period of more than eighteen months, with or without a solution of continuity, for the same or a different job with the same company or group of companies, through two or more contracts due to production circumstances, either directly or through making them available by temporary work companies, will acquire the status of permanent workers.

Likewise, the person who occupies a job that has been occupied with or without a solution of continuity, for more than eighteen months in a period of twenty-four months, will acquire the status of permanent through contracts for production circumstances, including employment contracts. available made with temporary work agencies.

7. The company must inform people with fixed-term or temporary contracts, including training contracts, about the existence of job vacancies, in order to guarantee them the same opportunities to access permanent positions as other workers.

8. Collective agreements may establish temporary reduction plans, as well as set general criteria regarding the adequate relationship between the volume of temporary contracts and the total workforce of the company, objective criteria for the conversion of contracts of fixed duration or temporary in indefinite, as well as to set maximum percentages of temporary employment and the consequences derived from non-compliance with them.

In any case, the worker may request, in writing to the corresponding public employment service, a certificate of the fixed-term or temporary contracts entered into, in order to be able to prove his condition as a permanent worker in the company.