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FAMILY

EXPLAINED: Spain’s new leave of absence schemes to care for family members

The Spanish government has given the green light to three new leave of absence schemes to allow people time off work to care for children and other family members during holiday periods, when they're unwell or for other urgent reasons.

EXPLAINED: Spain's new leave of absence schemes to care for family members
Spain's Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra, has spearheaded the measures. Photo: OSCAR DEL POZO/AFP.

The Spanish government has approved three new types of leave to take care of children or close relatives, and to help parents manage periods without school. These were measures that were originally included in the Family Law passed in late-2022 but yet to be approved.

READ ALSO: UPDATE: Five things you should know about Spain’s new Family Law

Instead, the leave of absence measures have been introduced as part of the Royal Decree-Law on anti-inflationary crisis measures. They aim to improve work-life balance, and have been spearheaded by Spain’s Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra.

The new leave schemes will come into force immediately when they are published in the BOE this week.

The first of these leaves of absence is for five days a year and will be paid leave. It can be used in the event of a serious accident or illness, hospitalisation or surgery without hospitalisation that requires rest when it affects a relative or a person with whom they live.

The second is “force majeure” leave. It can be used on an hourly basis and amount to up to a total of four days per year for each worker for “urgent family reasons”. It will also be paid. This type of force majeure leave is intended to be short-term incidents, such as if a parent is ill and needs to be accompanied to the doctor or if a child becomes ill and one of the parents needs to stay at home to look after the child.

The third is parental leave, and will be unpaid. This leave of absence can last up to eight weeks a year, can be taken continuously or discontinuously, full-time or part-time, until the child reaches the age of 8. It is designed, for example, to provide a solution for parents to cope with adaptation periods in nurseries and schools or for periods without classes, namely during the summer or Christmas period.

Belarra said of the new leave: “We are happy to achieve these advances, but we know very well that it is not enough. There are still many people who feel that they do not see their children grow up, that they do not spend quality time with their partner, that they can only see their parents a few hours a week.”

Belarra, who is also leader of Unidas Podemos and part of the Sumar electoral platform, promised to “continue promoting” further measures to make forming a family in Spain “a little bit easier”.

“We want to have time for the most important things and there is still time to make this possible,” she said in a video posted to social media.

The leaves of absence, included in the recent royal decree, were originally meant to be approved as part of Spain’s wide-ranging Family Law, legislation that included, among other things, a €100 handout for mothers with children from 0 to 3 years, recognition of ‘all forms of family’ and support for single-parent families.

This includes those who are married or have registered as a pareja de hecho (common-law partners). Common-law partners will now have access to the 15 days of permission for registration, like those who get married, and will be able to access the same permits.

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WORKING IN SPAIN

How to legally claim pay owed to you by a Spanish company

If you're owed pay by a Spanish company, there are a few different options available to you ranging from civil conciliation processes to taking the case to court.

How to legally claim pay owed to you by a Spanish company

If you’re owed wages by a company in Spain, claiming and getting that money back can seem like a daunting task – especially if you aren’t a fluent Spanish speaker or familiar with how these things work under Spanish law.

The first thing to know is that in Spain, when a company doesn’t pay up the employee has a few routes to reclaim the money. Some are civil, whereas others go through the courts.

Before starting any legal process in Spain, it is advisable to get the advice of a professional such as a lawyer or gestor.

READ ALSO:

Centro de Conciliación, Medición y Arbitraje

Your first option is through a civil procedure. This is essentially a non-judicial way of trying to recover your money, as regulated in Article 29 onwards of the 2015 Workers’ Statute.

This is the non-legal route, and should be your first port of call for resolving a pay dispute. It essentially means you try to reach an agreement with the company through a Centro de Conciliación, Medición y Arbitraje, which is like a civil arbitration body. Most regions have their own organisation for this purpose.

Although not a court of law, they often resolve disputes more quickly (and far more cheaply) than going through the courts. Many employers might be willing to settle here before risking taking it to court.

You’ll have to make a statement outlining the grounds for your claim, including the hours and back pay owed, as well as a summary of the working situation.

It’s important to do this properly as what you put in the statement document can later be used in a court case if the conciliation is unsuccessful and you move onto the legal route.

There are three possible outcomes of a conciliation process:

  • The claim is recognised by the former employer and an agreement is reached.
  • There is no agreement and the process is taken to court.
  • One of the parties does not appear and the claim automatically moves onto court.

Inspección de Trabajo

You can also try to claim the wages through an inspección de trabajo so the government can investigate and verify the non-payment. For some employers, the prospect of having a labour inspector sniffing around their business (and the possible prospect of a full investigation) might force them to the negotiating table.

If a labour inspector confirms your case it could impose a fine on the company (as well as get you your wages) but you should note that it’s not always possible to recover unpaid wages this way due to the statute of limitations on backpay, according to legal firm Luis Roca Abogados.

Spanish law gives employees a period of 1 year to claim unpaid wages. This period starts from the date of the first non-payment.

READ ALSO: How many hours do I have to work to get access to public healthcare in Spain?

The legal route

If you can’t claim the money back through the inspección de trabajo and the conciliation process is unsuccessful, you’ll want to take the second option — the legal route.

Here you’ll need to make a labour claim (reclamación de cantidad laboral). In order to make a claim through the courts, the following requirements must be met:

  • That the total amount of unpaid wages does not exceed €6,000 (this would likely made it a different sort of claim).
  • You must know, and be able to prove, exactly what is owed to you.
  • The deadline for payment of wages has passed and the company is obliged to pay you.
  • That the employer has been notified of your claim, otherwise the court will close the proceedings.

If the non-payment of wages is a serious case (Luis Roca Abogados says four months or more of missing backpay) you can also apply to the courts for the termination of the employment contract, with compensation equal to that period corresponding to unfair dismissal.

Note that you must go to a Juzgado de lo Social and present all the necessary documents to prove your case: your complaint, the employment contract, the pay slips or amounts owed, employment history, and any statement from the Centro de Conciliación, Medición y Arbitraje if you have one.

READ ALSO: What to be aware of before accepting a part-time job in Spain

Our journalists at The Local are not legal experts. This article is meant to be informative but it is always recommended that you seek professional legal advice before starting any legal proceedings.

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