Workplace discipline in Spain

Disciplinary rules

An employer can only dismiss an employee for disciplinary reasons appointed in the Worker´s Statute Act or in the applicable collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which determine a list of conducts that can establish a disciplinary offence and the corresponding penalties (including dismissal).

The applicable CBA will also set out the procedure to be followed in the event of disciplinary proceedings.

Disciplinary matters

The law provides that an employee may be dismissed for the following disciplinary reasons:

• continuous and unjustified absence from the workplace or continuous and unjustified lateness
• lack of discipline or insubordination towards the employer or other employees
• breach of the duty of good faith or abuse of trust in carrying out their duties
• a voluntary and culpable decrease in the employee’s efficiency
• habitual drunkenness or drug addiction that affects work performance, and
• harassing the employer or another employee because of their racial origin, religious or personal convictions, disability, age or sexual orientation and sexual harassment.

CBAs can set out further disciplinary infringements and sanctions.

Penalties

Typical disciplinary sanctions provided by the CBA include: (i) for minor acts of misconduct: oral warnings, written warnings; (ii) for serious acts of misconduct: suspension of employment and salary between three and 15 days; (iii) for very serious misconduct: suspension of employment and salary for between 16 days and 60 days, temporary disqualification and disciplinary dismissal.

Procedure

The detailed procedure for a disciplinary situation is established in the applicable CBA.

The employer must give a written notice to the employee with a precise description of the misconduct and the date on which the dismissal becomes effective.

There is a specific rule for an employee representative who is being subject to disciplinary action; this rule includes consulting in advance both the employee in question and the other members of the representative body (eg Works Council).

Time scale

Generally, the employer must impose the relevant sanction before the end of the following periods: ten days if it is a minor misconduct; 20 days if it is a serious misconduct, or 60 days from the date on which the employer became aware of the misconduct and, in any event, six months from the date of the commission of the very gross misconduct.

Appeals

If an employee considers that his/her employer has imposed an inappropriate sanction on him/her, he/she can initiate a claim before the Mediation, Arbitration, and Conciliation Service (SMAC), or at the equivalent department in the Autonomous Regions that have jurisdiction enforcement of these labour matters.

The SMAC will summon both parties to a meeting, if the parties do not reach a settlement, the employee can bring the claim to the Labour Court. The Court may fully or partially confirm the sanction, or alternatively declare it null and void, if there was a failure to comply with the required formal procedure or if the employer has imposed a sanction which is not allowed.

Further details in relation to workplace discipline in Spain is available from our International Employers Issues (IEI) microsite here.