1. New business secrets law
Law 1/2019, of 20 February, on Business Secrets was published on 21 February 2019 and will come into force on 13 March 2019. The Business Secrets Law transposes Directive (EU) 2016/943 of the European Parliament and the Council of 8 June 2016 into Spanish law, and replaces regulation of this matter by the Unfair Competition Law.
2. Social security contribution order, 2019
The Orden TMS/83/2019, of 31 January, developing the legal rules for Social Security contributions, unemployment, cessation of activity protection, Wage Guarantee Fund and vocational training, which sets out the base amounts to be used to calculate contributions in 2019, has just been published.
3. Unconstitutionality of employment related provisions of the spanish budget law
In its judgement no. 122/2018 of 31 October (Appeal of unconstitutionality no. 4710/2017), the Constitutional Court has held that two employment related provisions of the 2017 Spanish Budget Law are unconstitutional, and therefore null, finding that their content exceeds the material limits constitutionally permitted for a budgetary norm.
Specifically, the Constitutional Court considers that the aforementioned rules on the hiring of labor personnel by Public Administrations did not comply with the following requirements for the inclusion of provisions that are not strictly budgetary: (i) have an immediate and direct relationship with the revenue forecasts and expenditure ratings of the budgets or with the general economic policy criteria on which they are based; and (ii) be a necessary complement to the greater understanding and execution of the budget and, in general, of the government’s economic policy.
4. Collective agreement undertakings not to carry out certain types of dismissal are binding
The Supreme Court’s ruling no. 925/2018 of 31 October (appeal for the unification of doctrine no. 2715/2016) has held that the undertaking given by a company in its collective agreement not to carry out objective or collective dismissals for economic, technical, organisational or production reasons for a certain period of time, is binding and renders objective dismissals carried out in violation of that commitment unfair.
5. Violation of fundamental rights to require geolocation data of employees
In its judgement no. 13/2019 of 6 February (Procedure no. 318/2018), the National Court has declared null and void a measure imposed by a takeaway food company on its delivery people, which obliged the latter to download a geolocation system onto their personal mobile phones and to keep it activated throughout their working day. The National Court considers that this measure violates the workers’ fundamental right to privacy, as well as data protection regulations, and is a manifest abuse of rights by the employer.
6. Trade union obligation to check email account for notifications during collective BARGAINING
The National Court’s ruling no. 191/2018 of 3 December (Procedure no. 229/2018) has held that there was no discriminatory treatment or violation of the right to freedom of association of a trade union because, within the framework of the negotiation of a collective agreement at a company level, the last meeting of the negotiating committee was notified to the trade union only two days in advance and with a public holiday between the date of notification and the date of the scheduled meeting.
7. Violation of equality right to apply different criteria for the accrual of an extra benefit based on length of service in a collective agreement
In its judgement no. 1750/2018 of 4 October (Appeal no. 1161/2018), the High Court of Justice of Castilla y León (Valladolid) has held that the fact that a collective agreement provides for different remuneration for workers based on the date they join the company, establishing different criteria for the accrual of an extra benefit based on length of service, violates the right to equality under article 14 of the Spanish Constitution.
8. Infringement of anti-harassment protocol by a company
On 24 October 2018, in connection with appeal no. 421/2018, the High Court of Justice of Galicia has held that a company breached its obligations regarding the implementation of its anti-harassment protocol by exceeding the deadline for applying it, doing so without the necessary guarantees of confidentiality and in violation of fundamental rights.
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