Category: Case law / legal theory

National appellate court looks into time recording, beyond the coffee break
The Labor Chamber at Spain’s Appellate Court has delivered a widely reported judgment (December 10, 2019), underlining that it is valid to deduct smoking, breakfast or coffee breaks from actual working hours. Beyond this issue, however, two other no less important topics went unnoticed: how to compute the actual working hours of employees who travel […]

The necessary distinction between interns and workers
In 2019 we have witnessed intense inspection activity to monitor the presence in companies of what are called “non-employee trainees”, colloquially known as interns. The new Government, according to the program of the so-called “Progressive Coalition”, envisages the creation of a new intern’s statute (so that this concept serves excessively training purposes, and establishing a […]

GPS doesn’t work for recording working time
The Supreme Court has rejected the GPS-based time control system implemented by a company because it is not able to calculate working time in its entirety. A recent order by the Supreme Court has shed some more light on the characteristics that working time recording systems implemented by companies should have. The context in which […]

Spreading fake news about employers may lead to dismissal
When fake news is spread which directly affects an employer or its workforce, one can go to court or adopt the appropriate disciplinary decisions, if it is a worker who spreads such news. Fake news is having an impact on employment relations. Numerous companies cannot find an effective way of counteracting fake news published on […]

The negotiation of the equality plan when there are no workers’ representatives requires caution
The new obligation to implement equality plans in companies with more than 50 employees has caused an increase in the number of cases in which there are no workers’ legal representatives with whom to negotiate them. This situation raises certain doubts which must be resolved by future regulations or case law. The latest changes made […]

The courts continue to fight the excessive use of temporary contracts
Temporary contracts are in the cross hairs. The adaptation of Spanish law to European Union (EU) legislation in this area is a matter that has been ruled on in recent years by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) which, by answering the questions referred to it for preliminary rulings, is having a […]
