Royal Decree-Law 32/2021, of December 28, on urgent measures for labor reform, the guarantee of stability in employment and the transformation of the labor market is the regulation that we commonly refer to as "The Labor Reform" whose purpose and governmental objective is focused on mitigating inequality and precariousness in employment.
One of the main purposes of the aforementioned regulation is to simplify employment contracts, thereby modifying the regulations on temporary employment, as it alters the types and characteristics of existing employment contracts. In this article, we will focus on analyzing fixed-term contracts, which have been the subject of the main changes and modifications in this new legislation.
Until now, temporary employment was limited to three main traditional categories: fixed-term contracts for temporary replacement of employees with job security, temporary contracts due to production needs, and contracts for specific projects or services. The latter was eliminated with the entry into force of Royal Decree 32/2021 of December 28. Therefore, contracts for specific projects or services, widely used by companies, are no longer a viable option for them.
The temporary contract for production circumstances, although it remains in force in our legal system, has undergone important modifications, as the aforementioned typology is divided in turn into two subgroups:
- production circumstances foreseeable: intended to address occasional, foreseeable situations that have a reduced and delimited duration, expressly providing a maximum duration of 90 days within the calendar year, regardless of the number of workers needed to address the specific situations, and the aforementioned 90 days cannot be used continuously.
- production circumstances unforeseen: intended for situations involving occasional and unforeseen increases and fluctuations that, even within the company's normal activity, create a temporary imbalance between available stable employment and the workforce. The maximum duration of this type of contract is 6 months, extendable to one year if so stipulated in the sectoral collective bargaining agreement.
The legal requirement remains to specify precisely in the contract the enabling cause of the temporary contract, the specific circumstances that justify it and its connection with the planned duration so that the cause of temporaryity is justified.
Finally, we have no doubt that this recent legal regulation will give rise to numerous judicial pronouncements, especially focused on clarifying the causes that should be considered as foreseeable and unforeseeable production circumstances, which is one of the main legislative novelties introduced by Royal Decree-Law 32/2021, of December 28.
You can contact this professional office for any questions or clarifications you may have.
Warm regards,
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A graduate in Law from the University of Barcelona, she also completed a Master's degree specializing in Labor Law and Social Security at the Barcelona Bar Association. She began her professional career as an intern while studying and later joined the Navarro Law Firm as an employment lawyer, advising companies nationwide on labor law matters and representing them before the Labor Courts, the Labor Inspectorate, in conciliation proceedings, etc. In February 2017, she joined Àmbit Jurídic i Econòmic as a professional partner after extensive experience as an employment lawyer.
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