How to review an employment contract in Spain

Use the statutory baseline

Spain's consolidated Workers' Statute presumes employment is indefinite and full-time unless a lawful arrangement proves otherwise. An indefinite contract has no preset end. A temporary contract must use a permitted production-circumstance or substitution branch and state the precise cause, concrete facts and connection to the proposed duration. Labels such as project, campaign or probation do not cure a permanent need.

A fijo-discontinuo contract is indefinite for intermittent or seasonal activity that recurs. It should identify the activity, expected period and objective call-up system under law or convenio. A pause between calls is not automatically resignation or final termination. Part-time terms must state ordinary hours and their distribution; the actual time record and complementary-hours agreement matter.

Training in alternation combines paid work with a formal learning plan. A professional-practice contract follows a relevant qualification within its legal window and needs a training plan and tutor. Temporary-work agencies employ workers assigned to a user company; the employer, user duties, comparable conditions and end of assignment must be distinguished.

Treat remote work as a written layer

Regular remote work at least 30 percent over a three-month reference period generally falls under the Remote Work Act. It is voluntary for both sides and requires a written agreement before remote work starts, covering equipment, expenses, schedule, workplace, remote percentage, control, technical failure, reversibility and duration. The employer supplies and maintains required tools and compensates work-related costs under the law and convenio.

Let the convenio answer the next questions

The collective agreement can set professional groups, higher pay, annual hours, probation, supplements, call-up, notice, leave and disciplinary process. Find registered texts and salary tables in REGCON, testing employer activity, company agreement, functional territory and validity.

Choose indefinite for ongoing work, fixed-discontinuous for recurring intermittent need, a causal temporary form only for genuine limited circumstances, part-time only with written hours, a training form only with real learning, and regular remote work only with its separate agreement.

Identify an employment relationship

A person who provides paid services voluntarily within another organisation and under its direction is generally an employee, regardless of an invoice label. Indicators include the company setting schedule, place, price, clients, tools, instructions and approval, while bearing business risk. Genuine autónomo activity involves independent organisation and commercial risk. A false self-employed contract can deprive the worker of payroll, holiday, contributions and dismissal protection without changing the underlying facts.

The employer must be the actual legal entity employing and paying the worker. In agency work, the temporary-work company employs and the user directs day-to-day work within the lawful assignment. Senior management, household work, artists and other special relationships can have additional rules.

Check personal and professional conditions

A contract does not create immigration permission. Verify that existing authorisation allows the employer, activity, hours and location, or make the start conditional on a new authorisation becoming effective. An NIE or Social Security number alone is not permission. Students must satisfy the current study-first compatibility and hour conditions. Workers under 18 face stricter time, night, overtime and safety limits and need the applicable capacity or consent.

A regulated profession can require qualification recognition, licence and professional registration before functions begin. Contract wording cannot bypass a legal scope of practice. Disability, pregnancy, family status, nationality, race, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation and other protected grounds cannot justify discriminatory contract terms.

Validate contract mechanics

For a temporary contract, demand the exact statutory cause and concrete temporary circumstance. For part time, record ordinary hours and distribution. For training, verify qualifying education, timing, tutor, learning plan and work-training split. For regular remote work, apply the 30-percent test and written agreement. A probation period must be written, respect the convenio or statutory maximum, and can be invalid where the worker already performed the same functions for the employer.

Confirm the applicable agreement through REGCON and ask the employer for its code. Employer activity and territorial or company scope matter more than job title alone. Verify an ambiguous classification with worker representatives, a union, labour adviser or Inspectorate before accepting reduced pay or rights.

Capture the agreed terms

Keep the complete signed contract and every annex before work starts. It should identify legal employer, worker, workplace, start, role, professional group, contract type, temporary cause where relevant, schedule, gross salary, supplements, 12 or 14 payments, probation, holiday, notice, convenio, data and confidentiality terms. Record immigration conditions and obtain a separate regular-remote-work agreement with the mandatory equipment, expense, schedule, location, control and reversibility content.

Under the SEPE contract guidance, a relationship over four weeks requires written essential terms where they are not already in the written contract. The employer communicates the contract to the public employment service within ten days. A worker can later consult communicated contract data, but that record may not contain every signed clause, so request the employer copy immediately.

Prove registration, time, and pay

Keep the Social Security alta notice or work-life record, payroll tax form, bank details submission, risk-prevention training, equipment inventory and first-day instructions. Each month retain nómina, bank credit, time records, rota, approved leave, expense reports and corrections. Compare actual duties to professional group and actual hours to the contract. Preserve objective work products without taking confidential client or employer data.

For variable hours, fixed-discontinuous calls, complementary hours, overtime, travel or on-call periods, keep dated messages and the employer's official record. A personal log strengthens, but does not replace, employer records. Confirm remote equipment serials, condition, support, expenses and return process.

Handle missing or inconsistent records

If a contract copy is refused, ask in writing and save the request. SEPE explains how to obtain a PDF of communicated contract data. If alta or pay differs, preserve screenshots and seek correction immediately. Never sign blank pages, an inaccurate backdated temporary cause, lower hours than worked, or a receipt for money not received.

Check name, employer tax identity, dates, group, schedule, salary, bank, Social Security number and immigration status consistently. Do not surrender identity or qualification originals; secure copies and access-controlled electronic files are enough for ordinary hiring verification.

Complete the hiring sequence

1. Verify the legal employer. Match the offer, contract, workplace and payment entity. Identify any agency and user company separately.

2. Find the convenio. Search REGCON by company, activity, territory and code. Read scope, professional groups, salary table, annual hours, probation, leave and notice.

3. Compare the role and pay. Match actual duties to group. Convert salary to guaranteed gross annual cash and confirm payment count, supplements, variable pay, expenses, overtime and schedule.

4. Check contract legality. Demand a precise temporary cause, written part-time hours, fixed-discontinuous call rules, training plan or regular remote agreement as applicable. Verify probation and immigration permission.

5. Read before signing. Refuse blank spaces or promises left only in chat. Keep the exact signed copy and annexes. A representative or digital signature must still provide the complete readable document.

6. Obtain the Social Security number if needed. The worker or employer can request the lifelong number, but the employer remains responsible for employee registration.

7. Confirm alta before work. The Social Security deadline table requires General Scheme alta before the relationship begins and permits filing up to 60 days ahead. Productive trials, training and onboarding work should not occur off the books.

8. Start with operational records. Receive time-recording access, safety information, equipment, supervisor, schedule, data rules and remote-expense process. Record any difference from the contract.

9. Track public communication. The employer sends contract content or extensions to the employment service within ten days. This is not a worker filing obligation, but the worker can later inspect communicated data.

10. Audit the first cycle. Compare days, hours, group, base, supplements, extra-pay proration, contributions, withholding, expenses and bank credit. Check work-life data and correct discrepancies in writing.

Update the immigration authority, professional body, benefit office or regional employment service only where the start or changed status triggers a duty. Keep contract, alta, payroll and time records after leaving the employer account.

Build the wage calculation

Start with the current convenio salary for the correct professional group and schedule. Compare it with the national 2026 minimum wage: EUR 40.70 daily or EUR 1,221 monthly for a full legal schedule, normally EUR 17,094 over 14 payments. Part-time is proportional, salary in kind cannot reduce the cash floor, and annual figures change each year.

Separate base salary, group or role supplements, seniority, nights, shifts, hazardous work, availability, commission, guaranteed and discretionary bonus, overtime, extra payments and expenses. State whether the two statutory extra payments are paid separately or lawfully prorated under the convenio. Compare guaranteed gross annual cash. Do not count expense reimbursement as salary or an uncertain bonus toward a required immigration threshold.

Check time and paid absence

The contract and convenio determine weekly and annual hours, distribution, breaks, shift notice and overtime within statute limits. Part-time work needs written hours, and complementary hours require the proper agreement and notice. Keep daily time records. Annual paid holiday cannot be below 30 calendar days, with dates agreed under the applicable planning process. Leave, incapacity, family suspension and flexible-work rights have separate conditions.

Regular remote workers receive necessary equipment and maintenance and must not bear work-related remote costs under the Remote Work Act. The agreement and convenio should state calculation and payment. Business travel, mileage, per diem, tools, uniform and training costs need clear rules.

Audit deductions and exit money

Ordinary payroll includes worker Social Security and tax withholding. Any advance, loan, training repayment, equipment damage, uniform, accommodation or penalty deduction needs a lawful, transparent basis and cannot evade minimum rights. A broad repayment clause can be unenforceable or disproportionate.

At the end, review wages through the last day, overtime, earned extra payments, unused holiday compensation, expenses and any statutory temporary-contract indemnity or dismissal amount. A finiquito is an itemised settlement, not proof the termination was lawful. Write a reservation if figures or termination are disputed and obtain advice before signing a waiver. Official filing and Inspectorate information are free; union or professional help costs depend on membership and service.

Mark the early clocks

General Scheme alta must occur before work begins and can be filed up to 60 calendar days ahead. Employer communication of the contract or extension to the public employment service follows within ten days. A relationship over four weeks needs written essential terms where the contract itself omits them. Keep proof of start, contract request and registration because employer noncompliance does not make unregistered work safe.

Probation exists only if agreed in writing and within the convenio or statutory limit. Without a convenio rule, ordinary limits can reach six months for qualified technicians and two months for others, or three months for non-technicians in companies below 25 workers; a temporary contract no longer than six months generally has a one-month ceiling unless the convenio differs. Prior performance of the same functions can invalidate it. Time worked counts toward seniority.

Monitor the ongoing and ending relationship

Track pay date, time-record corrections, holiday planning, fixed-discontinuous calls, temporary cause and expected end, remote reviews, immigration expiry and professional renewal. If temporary work continues or its cause was unlawful, do not assume the label controls status. Ask for written clarification and preserve actual work.

Notice for resignation, contract end, objective dismissal, substantial change or relocation depends on the event, statute, convenio and contract. A fixed-term relationship over one year generally involves advance notice at expiry under the statute. Final pay and company certificate should be requested promptly. Do not sign a voluntary resignation to simplify an employer's termination.

Protect court deadlines

The Social Jurisdiction Act generally gives 20 business days to challenge dismissal, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and court-seat holidays. Other urgent changes can also have short expiry periods, while wage claims use a different limitation framework. File the required conciliation or mediation step correctly and understand its effect on time. An internal grievance, union discussion, Inspectorate complaint, benefit application or promise to reconsider does not automatically preserve the individual court claim.

After approval of an immigration change, move or job switch, verify the new alta and contract. After separation or departure, secure contract, payroll, work-life record and certificates. Calendar benefit registration and application separately from the employment dispute.

Stabilise the evidence

Do not sign a blank contract, backdated cause, false hours, fabricated receipt, voluntary resignation, settlement waiver or autónomo invoice arrangement without understanding it. Save the original vacancy, signed terms, messages, work instructions, schedule, location, time record, payroll, bank credits, coworkers, equipment and actual duties outside employer systems. Record the legal employer and any agency or user company.

A lower professional group, part-time document with full-time work, repeated temporary label for permanent activity, missing fixed-discontinuous call, unpaid productive trial, cash salary, late alta or remote costs can be tested against the Workers' Statute and applicable convenio. Ask for correction in writing where safe, specifying the fact, evidence, rule and remedy, but do not let discussion consume a court deadline.

Use complementary remedies

Worker representatives or a union can identify the convenio, compare group and pay, accompany meetings and support collective issues. Social Security can correct affiliation evidence. SEPE can show communicated contract data. The Labour Inspectorate portal covers labour, equality, safety, Social Security, employment and foreign-worker breaches through distinct formal complaint and mailbox routes. Inspectorate action can investigate and sanction or prompt registration, but it does not award every individual wage or decide dismissal validity.

Many individual claims require pre-court conciliation and then the social court. Dismissal generally expires after 20 business days. Wage, classification, substantial-change, fixed-discontinuous and fundamental-rights claims use their own procedure and timing. Seek qualified advice promptly, especially when an employer calls termination a failed probation, resignation or contract expiry.

Handle urgent and immigration-linked harm

Immediate safety danger, violence, coercion, trafficking, identity retention or criminal fraud needs emergency or police help. Discrimination or retaliation needs a protected chronology and specialist route. A worker whose permit depends on the job should obtain immigration advice alongside labour advice before accepting a new employer promise or continuing mismatched work.

Free or lower-cost help can include worker representatives, unions, labour inspection information, regional labour services, migrant and equality organisations, bar orientation and legal aid where eligible. Bring identity, status, contract, convenio, employer details, alta and work-life record, payslips, hours, termination communication, chronology, desired remedy and the earliest deadline.