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HR dictionary

The terms that turn up on a payslip, in a collective agreement or during an inspection, explained in one sentence and with the article that governs them. Written for the people who have to apply them, not for people studying them.

85 terms, grouped by subject and kept current with Spanish employment law.

Working time

Complementary hours: Additional hours that can only be agreed in part-time contracts, in writing and within the limits of article 12 of the Workers’ Statute.; They are not overtime: a part-time contract does not allow overtime, except for force majeure. Agreeing them requires a contract of at least ten weekly hours on an annual basis, three days’ notice and a cap that the collective agreement may extend. They are paid as ordinary hours and count towards social security contribution bases.; See alsoPart-time contract Overtime
Effective working time: The time somebody is at their post and at the company’s disposal, and it is what counts as working time.; Article 34.5 of the Workers’ Statute defines it and requires the day to be counted at its start and end at the workplace. Travel time between sites during the day counts; travel from home to the first site generally does not, unless there is no fixed workplace.; See alsoTime record Meal break On-call time
Hours bank: A running balance of hours worked above or below the agreed working time, later offset with time off.; It is not a figure defined in the Workers’ Statute: it comes from collective bargaining or company agreements, which set the maximum balance, the period for offsetting it and who decides when it is taken. Without those written rules, an hours bank ends up working as undeclared overtime.; See alsoIrregular distribution of working hours Overtime
Irregular distribution of working hours: The option to spread up to 10% of the working year unevenly, while respecting the minimum rest periods.; Article 34.2 allows up to that 10% where nothing is agreed, and a collective agreement may go further. The company must give five days’ notice of the specific day and time. The differences must be balanced out within the year, and the time record is what proves they were.; See alsoOrdinary working hours Time record Hours bank
Meal break: In continuous days of more than six hours at least fifteen minutes of rest apply, counting as working time only where the collective agreement says so.; Set by article 34.4 of the Workers’ Statute, and for under-eighteens it is thirty minutes from four and a half hours. If the collective agreement does not say it counts, it is unpaid time and must appear in the record for the day to add up.; See alsoEffective working time Time record Collective agreement
Night work: Work carried out between 10pm and 6am, with specific pay and a working day limited to an average of eight hours.; Article 36 of the Workers’ Statute defines it and prohibits overtime in night work, save for the exceptions provided. The specific pay is set by the collective agreement and may be replaced with rest. A night worker is somebody who works at least three hours in that window, or a third of their annual hours.; See alsoRotating shifts Collective agreement
On-call time: Time somebody must stay reachable to attend if called, and whether it counts depends on how much it limits their freedom.; European case law distinguishes on-site standby, which is full working time, from being merely reachable, which only counts where the restrictions imposed objectively and very significantly affect the ability to manage free time. Collective agreements usually pay it through a specific supplement.; See alsoEffective working time Rest between working days Salary supplements
Ordinary working hours: The maximum ordinary working week in Spain is 40 hours of effective work, averaged over the year.; Set by article 34.1 of the Workers’ Statute. The annual average is what allows an irregular distribution: weeks of 45 hours and weeks of 35 are possible where a collective agreement provides for it and the rest periods are respected. The reduction to 37.5 hours was rejected in Congress on 10 September 2025 and is not in force, although many collective agreements already set shorter weeks.; See alsoIrregular distribution of working hours Collective agreement Overtime
Overtime: Hours worked beyond the ordinary working day, capped at 80 a year per person and recorded day by day.; Article 35 of the Workers’ Statute caps them at 80 a year, not counting force majeure hours or those offset with rest within the following four months. They are paid at no less than the value of an ordinary hour, or offset with time off where agreed. They are voluntary unless otherwise agreed or provided for in the collective agreement.; See alsoTime record Complementary hours Ordinary working hours
Remote work: Regular work at a distance, which counts as such when it reaches 30% of working time over three months.; Law 10/2021 requires an individual written agreement with minimum content: an inventory of equipment, costs and how they are reimbursed, the schedule and availability rules, and the reference workplace. It is voluntary and reversible for both parties, and cannot mean a loss of rights or a pay cut. The time record remains mandatory.; See alsoRight to disconnect Time record
Rest between working days: At least twelve hours must pass between the end of one working day and the start of the next.; Set by article 34.3 of the Workers’ Statute, and it cannot be bought out: it is rest, not pay. It is the limit most often breached without anyone noticing in shift work and on-call work, and the time record makes it visible because both times are written down.; See alsoTime record Rotating shifts Weekly rest
Right to disconnect: The right not to answer work communications outside working hours, which obliges the company to have an internal policy.; Recognised by article 88 LOPDGDD and, for remote work, article 18 of Law 10/2021. The company must draw up an internal policy, after consulting the legal representatives, defining how the right is exercised and what training and awareness measures apply. Having the policy and not applying it is the most common failure.; See alsoRemote work Time record
Rota: The plan that assigns each person a shift and a schedule for each day of a period.; It has no legal definition of its own, but it does have legal consequences: it is the document that evidences planned working time, and the differences between what was planned and what was recorded are the first thing an inspection compares. A rota published late or changed without notice breaches the duty to inform in article 34.2 where hours are distributed irregularly.; See alsoRotating shifts Irregular distribution of working hours Time record
Rotating shifts: Work organised in teams that successively occupy the same posts, rotating schedules according to a rota.; Article 36.3 of the Workers’ Statute requires that nobody works the night shift for more than two consecutive weeks unless they volunteer. The rota must be published far enough in advance for people to organise their lives, and last-minute changes are one of the main sources of conflict and turnover in shift-based sectors.; See alsoNight work Weekly rest Rota
Time record: A time record is the daily note of when each employee starts and finishes work, mandatory in Spain since May 2019 and kept for four years.; Required by article 34.9 of the Workers’ Statute, after Royal Decree-law 8/2019. It applies to the whole workforce, full-time included, and the record must be available to employees, their legal representatives and the labour inspectorate. As of September 2026 the royal decree that would require it to be kept digitally is still in process and unpublished, so what is enforceable today is keeping a record, not keeping it digitally.; See alsoOrdinary working hours Overtime Labour inspectorate
Weekly rest: A day and a half of uninterrupted rest a week, which can be accumulated over periods of up to fourteen days.; Article 37.1 of the Workers’ Statute regulates it and allows accumulation, which is what makes weekend work with grouped rest possible. For under-eighteens it is two uninterrupted days. A collective agreement may improve it but not reduce it.; See alsoRest between working days Rotating shifts

Absence and leave

Absenteeism: The share of agreed working hours lost, including sick leave, authorised leave and unjustified absence.; There is no legal definition, so each company has to set its own and stick to it: changing the denominator changes the figure and ruins the comparison with previous years. It is worth separating absence through temporary incapacity from the rest, because the causes differ and so do the remedies.; See alsoTemporary incapacity Employee turnover People analytics
Annual leave: The legal minimum is thirty calendar days a year, which cannot be exchanged for money.; Article 38 of the Workers’ Statute sets it and requires the dates to be known two months in advance. If sick leave overlaps with the period, the days are not lost: they are taken when the incapacity ends, even in the following year. They are only paid out when the employment ends without them having been taken.; See alsoPaid leave Temporary incapacity Final settlement
Family force majeure leave: Up to four days a year of paid absence for urgent, unforeseeable family reasons.; Article 37.9 of the Workers’ Statute recognises it for situations that make the employee’s immediate presence indispensable. By its nature it requires no notice, though it does require later justification. It is separate from hospitalisation leave and does not use it up.; See alsoPaid leave
Leave of absence: A suspension of the contract at the employee’s request, unpaid, with different reinstatement rights depending on the type.; Voluntary leave lasts from four months to five years and only gives a preferential right to reinstatement in a vacancy of equal or similar grade. Childcare leave lasts until the child turns three and reserves the post for the first year, or longer where the collective agreement says so. Family care leave runs to two years. All three count towards seniority.; See alsoReduced hours for care Parental leave
Nursing leave: One hour of absence a day until the child turns nine months, which may be accumulated into full days where the collective agreement allows.; Article 37.4 of the Workers’ Statute recognises it as an individual right of each parent and allows splitting it into two fractions or reducing the day by half an hour. Where both exercise it, it can extend to twelve months with a proportional pay reduction from nine.; See alsoParental leave Reduced hours for care
Paid leave: Justified absences that are paid, recognised in article 37.3 of the Workers’ Statute for situations such as marriage, bereavement, hospitalisation or moving house.; The Workers’ Statute sets minimums that a collective agreement may extend, never reduce. They are counted in working days unless the rule says calendar days, and that difference is the most frequent source of payroll error. The extension of bereavement leave to ten days, agreed in December 2025, remains unpublished as of September 2026, so the enforceable minimum is still the one in the Statute.; See alsoFamily force majeure leave Collective agreement Annual leave
Parental leave: Eight weeks of leave to care for a child under eight, taken continuously or in blocks.; Introduced by article 48 bis of the Workers’ Statute when transposing the work-life balance directive. It is an individual right of each parent and non-transferable. Whether it is paid has been the subject of reform, and it is worth checking the current state of the rule before telling the workforce, because it is one of the points where out-of-date information generates claims.; See alsoLeave of absence Reduced hours for care Paid leave
Reduced hours for care: The right to reduce working hours by between an eighth and a half, with a proportional pay cut, to care for children or relatives.; Article 37.6 of the Workers’ Statute recognises it until the child turns twelve, and with no age limit for dependent relatives. The employee chooses the specific hours within their ordinary working day, and the company can only object for objective reasons it must justify. Reducing hours does not reduce the number of holiday days, only their pay.; See alsoLeave of absence Parental leave Part-time contract
Risk during pregnancy: Suspension of the contract where the post is incompatible with the pregnancy and there is no other to adapt or move to.; Before suspending, the post must be adapted and, if that is not possible, a compatible post offered. The benefit is one hundred per cent of the base and is paid by the mutual insurer or the social security. Not offering adaptation before suspending is the most frequent procedural error.; See alsoOccupational risk prevention Temporary incapacity
Temporary incapacity: The situation of somebody unable to work through illness or accident, receiving a benefit instead of a salary.; A distinction is drawn between common contingencies, where the company pays from day four to fifteen and the benefit starts on day four, and occupational contingencies, paid from the day after the leave begins and on a more favourable base. The company does not receive the medical note with the diagnosis: it receives notice of the leave, and asking for more means processing health data without a basis.; See alsoAbsenteeism Annual leave GDPR
Unjustified absence: Missing work without a proven cause, which is unpaid and may be subject to disciplinary action.; Deducting it requires it to be recorded and provable. The collective agreement grades the sanctions, and disciplinary dismissal for absence requires repetition and proportionality. Without a time record, proving the absence is close to impossible.; See alsoTime record Absenteeism Dismissal

Hiring and exit

Dismissal: Termination of the contract by the company’s decision, and its classification as fair, unfair or void determines what it costs.; An objective dismissal, on economic, technical, organisational or production grounds, pays twenty days per year worked capped at twelve months’ pay. An unfair one pays thirty-three days per year capped at twenty-four months, plus pre-2012 service at forty-five days. A void dismissal requires reinstatement. The letter must state the facts and the effective date, and a defect of form leads to unfairness.; See alsoFinal settlement Notice period Collective redundancy (ERE)
Final settlement: The document settling what is owed when the contract ends: the month’s salary, untaken holiday and pro-rated extra payments.; It is not the same as severance, even when paid together: the settlement is earned pay, severance compensates for the termination. Signing it does not prevent a claim if disagreement is noted, and the employee is entitled to have a legal representative present at signing.; See alsoDismissal Annual leave Extra payments
Fixed-term contract: Only available for production circumstances or to cover an absence, and it must state the specific cause that justifies it.; The production-circumstances contract covers occasional, unforeseeable peaks and lasts at most six months, extendable to a year by collective agreement. The substitution contract covers somebody whose post is reserved and may overlap for fifteen days for handover. Anybody accumulating more than eighteen months in twenty-four in the same post becomes permanent.; See alsoPermanent contract Permanent seasonal contract
Notice period: The time by which the end of a contract must be announced: fifteen days for an objective dismissal, and whatever the collective agreement says for a resignation.; In an objective dismissal, failing to give notice does not void the dismissal but the unworked days must be paid. In a resignation, the company may deduct unserved notice days from the final settlement where the collective agreement allows it. The period runs in calendar days unless the agreement says otherwise.; See alsoDismissal Final settlement
Part-time contract: A contract with fewer hours than a comparable full-time employee, with the hours recorded day by day.; Article 12 of the Workers’ Statute prohibits overtime in these contracts and requires the daily hours to be recorded and a copy of the monthly summary handed over with the payslip, kept for four years. Failing to do so means the contract is presumed full-time, which is the most expensive consequence in the whole article.; See alsoComplementary hours Time record Reduced hours for care
Partial retirement and relief contract: A reduction in hours for somebody approaching retirement age, compatible with a partial pension and covered by a relief contract.; The reduction runs from twenty-five to fifty per cent, extendable where the relief worker joins full-time and permanently. The relief contract must be maintained for as long as the partial retirement lasts, and terminating it early means restoring the situation or being liable for the benefits.; See alsoPart-time contract Permanent contract
Permanent contract: A contract with no end date, and since the 2022 reform the default form of hiring in Spain.; Royal Decree-law 32/2021 reversed the rule: temporary hiring now requires a specific, justified cause. A temporary contract without a valid cause is presumed permanent. That presumption underpins most claims of fraudulent hiring.; See alsoFixed-term contract Permanent seasonal contract Probation period
Permanent seasonal contract: A permanent contract for seasonal or intermittent work, with a call-up each time the activity resumes.; The 2022 reform made it the ordinary route for seasonal work. The collective agreement sets the order and form of the call-up, and failing to call somebody when due amounts to dismissal. Periods of inactivity are neither holiday nor voluntary suspension, and they count towards seniority.; See alsoPermanent contract Fixed-term contract Rota
Probation period: The initial period in which either party can end the contract without cause or compensation, and it must be agreed in writing.; Article 14 of the Workers’ Statute limits it to six months for qualified technical staff and two months for everybody else, extendable to three in companies with fewer than twenty-five people. It is not available if the same duties were already performed at the company before. Not agreeing it in writing is the same as not having it.; See alsoPermanent contract Dismissal
Temporary work agency: A company that supplies workers to another, which directs their work without being their employer.; The supplied worker is entitled to the same pay they would receive at the user company under its collective agreement. The user company is jointly liable for pay and social security obligations, and responsible for the post’s risk prevention. Supplying staff outside an authorised agency is unlawful supply of labour.; See alsoFixed-term contract Transfer of undertaking Occupational risk prevention
Training contract: A contract for alternating training or for gaining professional practice, with set duration and pay.; The alternating contract combines work and training and lasts between three months and two years. The professional practice contract requires a qualification and must be signed within three years of obtaining it, lasting six months to a year. The 2022 reform abolished the old training and apprenticeship contract.; See alsoFixed-term contract Probation period Training plan
Transfer of undertaking: A change in ownership of a business or activity, where the new owner takes over the existing contracts.; Article 44 of the Workers’ Statute requires maintaining contracts, seniority and conditions, and imposes joint liability for outstanding obligations for three years. It requires informing the legal representatives before completing the operation. It also applies to changes of contractor where an autonomous productive unit is transferred.; See alsoTemporary work agency Works council Collective agreement

Pay

Base salary: Pay set by unit of time or output according to the professional group, excluding supplements.; Set by the collective agreement for each group and level, and it is the base on which many supplements and the extra payments are calculated. Confusing it with total gross pay is the error that most distorts pay reports, because two people on the same base salary can earn very different amounts.; See alsoSalary supplements Collective agreement Pay register
Collective agreement: The rule agreed between employers and union representatives that regulates working conditions above the legal minimum.; It may be sectoral, national or provincial in scope, or company-level. It is binding and can only improve on the law, never worsen it. Working out which agreement applies is the first step in any personnel decision, and getting it wrong carries errors into working time, pay and leave all at once.; See alsoBase salary Ordinary working hours Paid leave
Contribution base: The amount on which social security contributions are calculated, with a minimum and maximum cap per group.; It covers total remuneration, with extra payments spread across the year, and excludes items expressly exempt within their limits, such as per diems or travel. It determines the future amount of benefits and incapacity pay, so under-contributing harms the employee and leads to a claim with a surcharge.; See alsoPayslip Extra payments Per diems and travel expenses
Extra payments: At least two payments a year on top of the twelve monthly ones, which may be spread across the year where the collective agreement allows.; Article 31 of the Workers’ Statute sets a minimum of two, one at Christmas and one in the month the collective agreement decides. They accrue day by day, so somebody leaving in March is entitled to the proportional part. Spreading them without cover in the collective agreement is a practice the inspectorate has been correcting.; See alsoFinal settlement Base salary
Gender pay gap: The difference between what men and women are paid on average, expressed as a percentage of men’s pay.; It is calculated on gross hourly pay so that full-time and part-time are comparable: comparing annual amounts turns part-time work into a gap that does not exist. Directive 2023/970 also requires publishing the median, because the mean is moved by a few high salaries. A difference of twenty-five per cent within the same group must be justified.; See alsoPay register Pay audit Job evaluation
Job evaluation: The method that determines whether two different posts are of equal value, and therefore whether they should be paid the same.; Royal Decree 902/2020 requires it to consider training, experience, responsibility and working conditions, and to be sex-neutral. Without it there is no way to argue that two posts with different names and different pay do not conceal discrimination. It is the piece most often skipped and the first one asked for.; See alsoPay audit Gender pay gap Professional group
Pay audit: The diagnosis of the pay situation that companies required to have an equality plan must carry out.; It goes beyond the register: it requires valuing the posts, identifying the causes of differences and setting an action plan with deadlines. Its validity runs with that of the equality plan. It is the document that turns a gap figure into an explanation that stands up to an inspection.; See alsoPay register Equality plan Job evaluation
Pay in kind: The part of pay received as goods or services, capped at thirty per cent of the total.; Health insurance, a car, housing or non-compulsory training. Article 26.1 of the Workers’ Statute caps it at that thirty per cent and prohibits it from reducing cash pay below the statutory minimum wage. It is subject to contributions and tax, and valuing it wrongly is one of the most frequent adjustments.; See alsoBase salary Statutory minimum wage
Pay register: A document every company must keep, showing mean and median pay broken down by sex and professional group.; Required by Royal Decree 902/2020 and independent of size: a company of three must have it just as one of three thousand must. It covers base salary, supplements and non-wage payments, itemised separately. The legal representatives are entitled to access it, and not having it is a sanctionable breach.; See alsoGender pay gap Pay audit Equality plan
Payslip: The individual pay receipt, mandatory and with minimum content set by ministerial order.; It must itemise earnings, separating wage from non-wage items, the deductions and the contribution bases, and be given to the employee. Keeping it for four years is mandatory. A receipt that lumps items together without itemising makes it impossible to check the collective agreement and is a breach in itself.; See alsoContribution base Salary supplements Pay in kind
Per diems and travel expenses: Amounts compensating travel costs, exempt from contributions and tax within the regulatory limits.; Not being pay, they do not count towards the extra payments or severance. Exceeding the limits or being unable to evidence the travel turns the excess into pay, with backdated contribution adjustments. It is one of the first items the inspectorate reviews.; See alsoContribution base Payslip
Professional group: The grouping of skills, qualifications and job content that defines where a person sits within the collective agreement.; It replaced the old categories in 2012 and it is what bounds functional mobility: within the group the company can reassign duties, outside it must justify doing so. It determines which pay tables apply, so a wrong fit carries a sustained pay error.; See alsoCollective agreement Job evaluation Base salary
Salary supplements: Amounts added to the base salary for personal circumstances, the post or results.; There are supplements for seniority, for the post (night work, shift work, hazard), for quality or quantity (incentives, bonuses) and those falling due less often than monthly. They only become consolidated where the rule or the agreement says so: by default, a post supplement is lost on changing post. This is where most pay gaps are concentrated.; See alsoBase salary Gender pay gap Pay register
Statutory minimum wage: The minimum pay for a legal working day, set each year by royal decree and applicable to any sector.; Set as a daily and monthly amount for fourteen payments, and it cannot be garnished. It works as an absolute floor: a collective agreement cannot fall below it, and where it does the minimum applies. It is worth reviewing the agreement’s pay tables every January, because a rise in the minimum can absorb the lowest levels and compress the pay scale.; See alsoBase salary Collective agreement

People management

Career path: The foreseeable growth route within the company, with the steps and requirements of each level written down.; Written and published, it reduces turnover because it removes the sense of a ceiling and makes promotions read as decisions rather than favours. Without published criteria any promotion is arguable, and in a pay audit it is where the differences nobody can explain show up.; See alsoPerformance review Employee turnover Pay audit
Continuous feedback: The practice of giving feedback often and in the moment, instead of saving it up for an annual review.; It does not replace the formal review: it feeds it. Its advantage is that a difficult conversation happens while the event is fresh and can still be corrected, instead of eleven months later with the rating already set. It requires managers to have time assigned for it, or it does not happen.; See alsoPerformance review Workplace climate
Employee turnover: The share of people leaving the company in a period over the average headcount for that period.; It is worth separating voluntary from involuntary turnover, because they are different problems: one measures attractiveness, the other selection. And separating the first twelve months, which points at the onboarding process rather than the company as a whole. Undisaggregated, the overall figure suggests no action.; See alsoOnboarding Workplace climate People analytics
Employer branding: A company’s reputation as a place to work, which determines who it manages to attract and at what cost.; It is built on what the people already there say, not on what the careers page claims: a candidate’s most consulted source is reviews and private conversations. Promising in a job ad something the first month contradicts is the fastest way to raise early turnover.; See alsoOnboarding Employee turnover Workplace climate
eNPS: The indicator measuring how much the workforce would recommend the company as a place to work, on a scale from minus one hundred to one hundred.; It is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from that of promoters on a single zero-to-ten question. Its value is in the time series, not the absolute number: comparing your eNPS with another company’s says nothing, because cultural scales differ.; See alsoWorkplace climate People analytics
FTE: Full-time equivalent: the unit that turns a workforce with different working hours into a comparable figure.; Two people at fifty per cent make one FTE. It is the right unit for measuring capacity, cost per person and productivity, while headcount is what matters for legal obligations that depend on workforce size. Using one where the other belongs distorts any ratio.; See alsoPeople analytics Part-time contract
Headcount: The number of people on the payroll, counted by heads rather than by hours.; It is the unit used by legal obligations that depend on size: fifty people for the equality plan, the whistleblowing channel or the works council. For measuring capacity or cost the right unit is FTE, and confusing them makes a workforce with a lot of part-time work look larger than what it produces.; See alsoFTE Equality plan Works council
Offboarding: The process of somebody leaving: settlement, returning equipment, revoking access and handing over knowledge.; Its most forgotten part is security: an active account belonging to somebody who has left is a breach waiting to happen, and the GDPR requires access to be limited to what is necessary. The exit interview is the most honest source of information HR has, and almost nobody uses it.; See alsoOnboarding Final settlement GDPR
Onboarding: The process that takes a new hire from signing the contract to being autonomous in the role.; It goes beyond first-day paperwork: it covers access to tools, health and safety training, introduction to the team and objectives for the first ninety days. Much of early turnover is decided here, and its cost is invisible because nobody invoices for it.; See alsoOffboarding Employee turnover Training plan
People analytics: Using workforce data to make people decisions instead of relying on intuition alone.; It starts with having a single source: with working time in one place, absences in another and payroll in a third, any cross-reference is manual and therefore occasional. The GDPR applies to people data, so it is best to work in aggregate and document the purpose before building the first report.; See alsoEmployee turnover Absenteeism GDPR FTE
Performance review: The periodic assessment of somebody’s work against previously agreed objectives and competencies.; To support a promotion or dismissal decision it has to be documented, periodic and use criteria the person knew before the period being assessed. A review written after the dismissal was decided proves nothing. There must be a record of what was agreed and of the follow-up tasks.; See alsoContinuous feedback Career path Dismissal
Pulse survey: A short, frequent survey of one to five questions that tracks how the climate moves between the large measurements.; Its advantage over the annual survey is that it detects a change in weeks rather than months. Its risk is fatigue: asking every week and never reporting back a conclusion cuts participation until it is useless. It is best to decide in advance what will be done with each result.; See alsoWorkplace climate eNPS Continuous feedback
Skills matrix: The map of what each person on the team can do and at what level, used to cover shifts, train and plan succession.; Its value is in spotting single points of failure: a critical skill only one person has is an operational risk that surfaces the day they go off sick. It feeds the training plan and the rota, because a shift is not covered by whoever is free but by whoever can do it.; See alsoTraining plan Rota Career path
Training plan: The annual programme of workforce training, with its recipients, objectives and funding.; Part of the training is compulsory and does not count as such: health and safety training is working time and the company pays for it. The FUNDAE training credit is annual and not carried over, so what is not used is lost. Employees are entitled to twenty hours a year of job-related training, accumulable over up to five years.; See alsoOnboarding Occupational risk prevention
Workplace climate: The workforce’s shared perception of what it is like to work at the company, measurable through periodic surveys.; It is measured with anonymous, aggregated surveys: if the respondent believes their answer can be identified, the survey measures something else. Measuring without a follow-up action plan makes the climate worse, because asking and doing nothing reads as indifference.; See alsoeNPS Employee turnover Continuous feedback

Compliance

Collective redundancy (ERE): A collective dismissal, triggered when certain thresholds of affected employees are exceeded within ninety days.; The thresholds in article 51 of the Workers’ Statute are ten people in companies of fewer than one hundred, ten per cent in those of one hundred to three hundred, or thirty in larger ones. It requires a consultation period, financial documentation and notification to the labour authority. Splitting dismissals to stay under the threshold is an abuse of law.; See alsoTemporary layoff (ERTE)Dismissal Works council
Equality plan: The set of measures to achieve equality between women and men, mandatory from fifty employees.; Royal Decree 901/2020 requires negotiating it with the legal representatives, starting from a diagnosis and registering it in the public register of collective agreements. It includes the pay audit. Its maximum validity is four years and it must be reviewed periodically.; See alsoPay audit Harassment protocol LGBTI plan
Functional mobility: Assigning duties other than the usual ones, free within the professional group and requiring justification outside it.; Article 39 of the Workers’ Statute allows it within the group with no limit other than qualifications and dignity. Outside the group it requires technical or organisational grounds and is temporary. Performing higher duties for more than six months in a year, or eight in two, allows a claim for promotion or the pay difference.; See alsoProfessional group Substantial change of conditions Geographic mobility
GDPR: The European data protection regulation, which in employment requires a legal basis for every processing of workforce data.; In the employment relationship the basis is usually performance of the contract or compliance with a legal obligation, not consent: consent given by somebody who depends on you for their pay is not freely given. Health data is a special category and requires a reinforced basis. The LOPDGDD adds digital rights at work.; See alsoLOPDGDD Whistleblowing channel Workplace video surveillance
Geographic mobility: A transfer to a workplace that requires moving home, with a right to compensation or to terminate the contract.; Article 40 of the Workers’ Statute distinguishes a transfer, permanent or longer than twelve months in three years, from a temporary posting. A transfer requires justified grounds and thirty days’ notice, and the employee may choose to terminate with twenty days per year capped at twelve months’ pay. A change of workplace without moving home is not geographic mobility.; See alsoFunctional mobility Substantial change of conditions
Harassment protocol: The procedure every company must have, whatever its size, to prevent and respond to sexual harassment and harassment on grounds of sex.; Organic Law 3/2007 requires it of all companies, and the 2022 reform reinforced the duty to act. It must guarantee confidentiality, deadlines and an investigating officer with no conflict of interest. Having it and not having trained whoever must apply it is a common failure and hard to defend.; See alsoEquality plan Whistleblowing channel
Labour inspectorate: The body that monitors compliance with employment law and can issue infringement reports with financial penalties.; It can enter the workplace unannounced and demand documentation on the spot: time records, contracts, payslips, the pay register and the equality plan where applicable. Its reports carry a presumption of accuracy, so rebutting them requires documentary evidence. Not having a mandatory document is a breach in itself, regardless of whether harm occurred.; See alsoTime record Pay register Equality plan
LGBTI plan: The set of planned measures against discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and identity, mandatory for companies with more than fifty employees.; Required by Law 4/2023 and its implementing regulation, negotiated with the legal representatives. It includes a specific protocol against harassment and discrimination. It is separate from the equality plan, which applies from fifty employees, and is best handled with the same negotiating body.; See alsoEquality plan Harassment protocol
LOPDGDD: The Spanish law implementing the GDPR, which adds digital rights in the workplace.; Its title X regulates the right to disconnect, video surveillance, device monitoring and geolocation at work. Article 90 requires express information about geolocation systems and respect for proportionality. Article 32 regulates the blocking of data, which is what allows records to be kept without being used.; See alsoGDPR Workplace video surveillance Workplace geolocation Right to disconnect
Occupational risk prevention: The set of obligations to protect health and safety at work, with a risk assessment and a prevention plan.; Law 31/1995 requires assessing the risks of each post, informing and training the workforce, monitoring health and designating the preventive arrangement. Training is working time and the company pays for it. Remote work also requires an assessment of the post, even when it is somebody’s home.; See alsoPrevention delegate Remote work Training plan
Prevention delegate: The person designated by the workforce representatives for health and safety oversight duties.; Their number depends on workforce size, and in companies of up to thirty people the staff delegate takes on the role. They are entitled to accompany the inspectorate, access preventive documentation and propose measures. They have paid time off to carry it out.; See alsoOccupational risk prevention Works council
Substantial change of conditions: A unilateral change to hours, schedule, shifts, pay or duties, requiring a justified cause and fifteen days’ notice.; Article 41 of the Workers’ Statute regulates it and gives the affected employee the option to terminate with twenty days per year capped at nine months’ pay. Repeatedly changing schedules without following this procedure is the most common route to a claim, and the time record is what proves the change happened.; See alsoTemporary layoff (ERTE)Rota Time record
Temporary layoff (ERTE): A temporary suspension of contracts or reduction of hours on economic, technical, organisational, production or force majeure grounds.; The contract is not terminated: it is suspended, and the workforce receives unemployment benefit without using up their future entitlement to the same degree. It requires a consultation period with the legal representatives and notification to the labour authority. The RED mechanism allows it to be triggered in declared sectoral or cyclical situations.; See alsoCollective redundancy (ERE)Works council Substantial change of conditions
Whistleblowing channel: The internal reporting system for breaches, mandatory from fifty employees.; Law 2/2023 requires it, with the option of anonymous reporting, a designated System Manager and a three-month response deadline. It prohibits any retaliation against a reporter, and the burden of proving a measure is not retaliation falls on the company. The associated data processing must be documented.; See alsoHarassment protocol GDPR
Workplace geolocation: Recording an employee’s location, admissible only where proportionate to the purpose and expressly disclosed.; Article 90 LOPDGDD allows it within the monitoring powers of article 20.3 of the Workers’ Statute, with express, clear and unambiguous information to the workforce and their representatives. Locating the moment of a clock-in is proportionate; tracking location throughout the day or outside it is not.; See alsoLOPDGDD Time record Workplace video surveillance
Workplace video surveillance: Using cameras to monitor activity, permitted if prior, express information is given.; Article 89 LOPDGDD requires informing the workforce and their representatives, and a visible information sign suffices when a flagrant breach is captured. It is prohibited in changing rooms, toilets and canteens. It cannot be used to monitor working time as a substitute for the time record.; See alsoLOPDGDD Workplace geolocation Time record
Works council: The body that represents the workforce in workplaces of fifty or more people, elected by the staff themselves.; Between eleven and forty-nine people the representation is by staff delegates. It has information and consultation rights over working time, hiring, restructuring and equality plans, and some decisions are not valid without consulting it first. Its members have paid time off and protection against dismissal.; See alsoPrevention delegate Collective agreement Collective redundancy (ERE)

And how is all of this complied with?

Most of these terms end up in a record that has to be kept for four years and produced on request. That is where the platform comes in.

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