Equal treatment and non-discrimination

Right to non-discrimination

Workers have the right to not be discriminated against for employment, either directly or indirectly, or once employed, on the basis of their sex, civil status, age, racial or ethnic origin, social situation, religion, convictions, political ideas, sexual orientation, affiliation or not with a trade union, or their language, in Spain in accordance with Article 4(2)(c) of the Workers’ Statute (ET) .

Any regulatory provisions, clauses of collective bargaining agreements, individual clauses and unilateral decisions of an employer are deemed to be null and void, including those related to remuneration, working hours and other working conditions, if they might give rise, at the place of employment, to unfavourable situations of direct or indirect discrimination on the basis of age or disability or to situations of direct or indirect discrimination on the basis of sex, origin (including racial or ethnic), civil status, social situation, religion, convictions, political ideas, sexual orientation or condition, belonging or not belonging to trade unions and any agreements thereof, kinship with persons belonging or related to the company, or on language, in Spain ( Article 17 ET ).

Very serious violations ( Article 8(12) of the Law on Violations and Penalties of Social Order ) include unilateral decisions of a company that involve direct or indirect unfavourable discrimination on the basis of age or disability or favourable or adverse discrimination related to remuneration, working hours, training, promotion and other working conditions due to circumstances of sex, origin (including racial or ethnic), civil status, social situation, religion, convictions, political ideas, sexual orientation, belonging or not belonging to trade unions and any agreements thereof, kinship with other workers at the company, or on language, in Spain, and decisions of an employer that represent unfavourable treatment of workers as a reaction to a claim made at a company or due to an administrative or court action designed to require compliance with the principle of equal treatment and non-discrimination.

Any person who might have knowledge of any type of attitude that involves discrimination under the aforesaid terms should file the corresponding complaint at the offices of the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate.

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Equal pay for men and women

Employers are bound to pay the same wage or non-wage remuneration for providing work of equal value, satisfied directly or indirectly and regardless of the nature thereof, for which there must not be any discrimination on grounds of sex.

A job shall have equal value as another when the nature of the functions or tasks effectively entrusted, the educational, professional or training conditions required for the exercise thereof, the factors strictly related to the performance thereof and the labour conditions under which those activities are carried out in reality are equivalent.

Record of wages

An employer is required to keep a record of the average salary amounts, wage supplements and non-wage benefits of their staff, broken down by sex and by professional group, by professional category or by equal jobs or jobs of equal value.

Employees, through the legal representation of workers at a company, have the right to access their company’s wage record.

When, at a company with fewer than 50 workers, the average remuneration for workers of one sex is greater than that of the other sex by 25% or more, based on the total payroll or the average of benefits paid out, the employer must include in the wage record reasons justifying why that difference is for reasons not related to the sex of the employees.

Failure to comply with these obligations represents a breach of social order, following an investigation and opening of the corresponding penalty proceedings by the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate .

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Equal pay between temporary and permanent employees

Workers with temporary or fixed-term contracts have the same rights as workers with open-ended employment contracts, apart from the specific particulars of each of the contractual arrangements regarding termination of the contract and apart from the particulars that may be expressly provided for by law regarding training contracts. Such rights, whenever applicable considering the nature thereof, will be recognised proportionally in legal and regulatory provisions and in collective bargaining agreements, depending on the time worked (Article 15(6) ET) .

Whenever a certain right or working condition may be attributed in legal or regulatory provisions and in collective bargaining agreements according to the prior seniority of a worker, said seniority must be calculated according to the same criteria for all workers, regardless of their contracting mode.

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Information for each Autonomous Community

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