A fixed-term intermittent contract allows you to hire workers for a specific period each calendar year to perform tasks that do not recur on fixed dates and are within the company's normal volume of activity. If the tasks recur on fixed dates, you must use a permanent part-time contract.
We would like to inform you that if you wish to hire seasonal workers for fixed-term contracts, you may have questions about whether you can hire them part-time and modify their contract later.
The fixed-term intermittent contract is a type of indefinite contract that is agreed to carry out work that is permanent, stable, but intermittent over time.
Examples of fixed-term intermittent contracts:
- The services that are provided during the school year (monitors, cafeteria supervisors, etc.). Those employed by a company that provides these services, for example, a school bus driver, know that their work is stable, but intermittent, as it is only performed while students are in school.
- Seasonal fruit harvesting work.
- Summer jobs related to tourism and hospitality (a lifeguard, staff for a hotel, etc.).
Workers with a fixed-term intermittent contract do not have a temporary contract, but rather an indefinite one. They are part of the company's permanent staff; they simply do not work year-round, but they retain their right to be called back the following year.
The contract must indicate the estimated duration of the activity and the criteria of the applicable Collective Agreement for making the call, that is, the order in which employees will be called each season for their hiring.
Fixed-term intermittent workers may have full-time or part-time hours, but their employment relationship is always indefinite.
While employment contracts usually specify the type of work schedule (full or part-time) and its hourly distribution (week, days or hours), fixed-term intermittent contracts indicate the estimated, but uncertain, duration of the activity that motivates this type of contract, reflecting in an indicative way the working day that will be carried out and its distribution.
In a fixed-term intermittent contract, only workers with a part-time schedule may work additional hours .
Seasonal. The fixed-term intermittent contract allows you to hire workers for one season each calendar year to perform tasks that do not recur on specific dates and within the company's normal volume of activity. If the tasks recur on specific dates, you must use an open-ended part-time contract.
- For example, a worker's contract for the packaging of butane canisters is a fixed-term intermittent contract, which is repeated every year but on different dates.
- Conversely, the contract for bus drivers hired for school transport from September to June is indefinite part-time.
Call-up. Thus, in the fixed-term intermittent contract, you must call the workers before the start of a work period, keeping them registered with Social Security throughout the campaign. Once this work period has ended, the affected workers will begin receiving unemployment benefits, and so on.
Part-time
Agreement. A fixed-term intermittent contract may only be part-time when so stipulated in the applicable collective agreement. When this is the case, the other requirements of the collective agreement must also be met.
Formalizing a fixed-term part-time contract when not permitted by the collective agreement will result in its conversion to an indefinite-term contract. If the agreement does permit it but the formal requirements established therein are not met, the contract will be converted into a full-time contract.
Novation
Conversion. Your company may have entered into a full-time, fixed-term seasonal contract with a worker, but after calling them back for several seasons, in the next one you only need them to continue working part-time. Well then:
- You cannot impose that change , not even through a substantial modification of working conditions.
- This change is a "contractual novation" that requires the employee's consent (provided the collective agreement allows for this type of part-time contract, as mentioned above). Provide proof of this consent with a document signed by both parties to avoid future problems.
Breach of contract. If the employer calls the employee back but assigns them fewer hours than the full-time hours they have always worked without their express consent, the contract will not be considered validly modified (due to the lack of consent from one of the contracting parties). The new call-up will be considered full-time, and the employee may demand the wage difference, and the Labor Inspectorate may collect the corresponding social security contributions, in addition to a minimum fine of €626.
You can contact this professional office for any questions or clarifications you may have.
Warm regards,
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A Àmbit Assessor, SL has 40 years dedicated to the tax, comptable and labor consultancy of the Pime.
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