Royal Decree Law 16/2013, on measures to favour stable hiring and improve the employability of workers in Spain, came into effect in December 2013. The measures referring to contracts for part-time work in Spain introduce the following changes.
An obligation to record the working day of part-time workers is established (from which those who work in domestic service are exempt) and the consequences of its breach are determined. In this way, the working day will be registered day by day and will be added up each month. A copy will be given to the worker, together with the salary statement, summarizing the total hours worked each month, both regular and supplementary. The business owner must keep the monthly summaries of the working days for a minimum period of four years. In the event of a breach of the obligations about the register, the contract will be assumed to have been observed as a full working day, unless evidence to the contrary proves the part-time nature of the work.
In addition, the possibility of entering into an employment contract in support of entrepreneurs is allowed on a part-time basis. In particular: (i) the requirement that this contract should be full-time, in force until 21 December 2013, is abolished, thus enabling the formalization of a part-time contract and eliminating, in any case, all reference to its formalization employing an official formula, thus continuing with the simplification of contractual models; and (ii) all that is related to tax incentives and bonuses is adapted to this new possibility, and these will be applied proportionately to the length of the working day agreed in the contract.
Changes are introduced in the rules which contain incentives for this type of contract (incentives for hiring, deductions in Corporate Income Tax and Social Security contributions, among other things).
The rule specifies what should be understood by the activity sector to enter into a part-time employment contract linked to training.
The employer’s unemployment contributions for temporary contracts for part-time work will be the same as those for temporary contracts for full-time work. It is henceforth established that there will be a single rate of 6.70% for the employer’s unemployment contributions in temporary contracts. Thus, the rule establishes a reduction of 1% in the rate of the contribution for the possibility of unemployment in fixed-term contracts for part-time work contemplated in the General State Budget Law for the year 2014, so that it will be established at 8.30% (6.70% to be paid by the business owner — until now 7.70% — and 1.60% to be paid by the worker, which remains unchanged).
For additional information regarding part-time employment contracts in Spain,
