Equal treatment and non-discrimination

Last update: 26-03-2026

Not to be directly or indirectly discriminated against during recuitment or employment on the following grounds( art. 4.2.c) of the Workers’ Statute):

• sex
• marital status
• age
• racial or ethnic heritage
• social status
• religion or beliefs
• political ideas
• sexual orientation
• sexual identity
• gender expression
• sexual characteristics
• whether or not they are a member of a trade union
• language
• disability status or condition.

The following are considered null and void ( art. 17 ET):

• Regulatory provisions, clauses in collective agreements, individual agreements and employer decisions that give rise in employment to direct or indirect discrimination on the basis of family ties with people connected with the business, or on any of the grounds set out in the previous paragraph.
• Orders to discriminate and employer decisions that result in the unfavourable treatment of workers in response to a complaint made internally within the business or as an administrative or judicial action aimed at enforcing compliance with the principle of equal treatment and non-discrimination will also be considered null and void.
• Failure to comply with the obligation to take protective measures against discrimination and violence directed at LGBTI people ( Article 62(3) of the Law for the full and effective equality of trans persons and for the guarantee of LGBTI rights) will give rise to an assumption of liability on the part of the employer ( Article 62(2)).

Very serious infringements are unilateral decisions that

1. Impose unfavourable discrimination (direct or indirect) on grounds such as:

• Age
• Disability

• Gender
• Origin, including racial or ethnic origin
• Marital status
• Social status
• Religion or beliefs
• Political opinions
• Sexual orientation or identity
• Gender expression
• Sexual characteristics
• Language within the Spanish State
• Membership or non-membership of trade unions, or links with their agreements
• Family ties with other workers

• Internal complaints within the company
• Administrative or judicial proceedings to enforce the right to equal treatment and non-discrimination.

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.

The entrepreneur is obliged to keep a record of the average values of salaries, salary supplements and extra-salary perceptions of his staff, disaggregated by sex and distributed by professional groups, professional categories or equal or equal jobs.

Working people have the right to access, through the legal representation of workers in the company, to the salary register of their company.

Where, in a company with at least 50 workers, the average remuneration for workers of one sex is 25 per cent or more higher than that of the other, taking the total wage or the average of the satisfied earnings, the employer must include in the Wage Register a justification that the difference relates to reasons not related to the sex of the workers.

Failure to comply with these obligations entails an infringement of the social order, after investigation and initiation of the corresponding sanctioning procedure by the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate.