Employment - Legislative and case law developments

1. Royal Decree-Law 3/2026: pensions and new social security measures

Royal Decree-Law 3/2026 has increased contributory pensions by 2.7%. It has also increased the minimum and non-contributory pensions by between 7% and 11%, while the maximum contribution, additional solidarity contribution and the intergenerational equity mechanism (MEI) payments have also been updated. A new premium rate schedule has also been introduced for social security contributions relating to occupational accidents and diseases, which is adapted to the CNAE-2025 classification structure.

2. Minimum wage increased by 3.1%

Royal Decree 126/2026 sets the minimum wage at EUR 40.70 per day, or EUR 1,221 per month (14 payments), depending on whether it is paid on a daily or monthly basis, and is applied retrospectively from 1 January. This is equivalent to an annual increase of EUR 518 and a total annual salary of EUR 17,094.

3. Notary public taking over another notary public’s office considered a transfer of undertakings

In accordance with the CJEU ruling of 16 November 2023 and Directive 2001/23/EC, the Supreme Court declared a transfer of undertakings to have occurred as the incoming notary public, upon taking office, not only assumed responsibility for the notarial records (protocol) but also continued to carry out the same duties as the predecessor, with most of the same staff and resources (office, furniture, computers, software, etc.). The identity of the notarial office was therefore preserved. As a result, the Supreme Court held that the probationary period agreed with the transferred employee was null, and his dismissal unfair.

4. Parental leave deemed actual working time for the purposes of accruing annual leave

The Supreme Court has held that non-consecutive parental leave must be taken in weekly blocks and therefore cannot be taken for periods of less than one week at a time. In addition, following the entry into force of (EU) Directive 2019/1158 and the need to encourage equal bonding between both parents and their children, the Supreme Court ruled that periods of parental leave must be treated as actual working time for the purpose of determining the duration of annual leave entitlement.

5. Excluding temporary sickness and paid leave from variable remuneration calculation declared null

The Supreme Court has upheld a National Court ruling by holding that temporary absences due to sickness, as well as paid leave under article 37.3(b),(e) & (f) of the Spanish Workers’ Statute (relating to caring for family members, trade union duties and time off to prepare for childbirth or adoption) cannot result in the loss of variable remuneration, as this constitutes direct discrimination on the grounds of illness and indirect discrimination on the grounds of sex, in breach of Law 15/2022 of 12 July on equality and non-discrimination.

6. Collective redundancies: companies do not need to pay towards the intergenerational equity mechanism

The Supreme Court has overturned a National Court ruling by declaring that where employment contracts have been terminated and former employees continue contributing under a special social security agreement, companies are not required to pay the additional social security contributions corresponding to the intergenerational equity mechanism. Furthermore, in this specific case, the collective redundancy agreement contained a clause safeguarding the agreed amounts against subsequent legislative changes, without providing for any type of adjustment in favour of either the employees or the company.

7. Collective bargaining agreement clauses eliminating payment of salary supplement during sick leave declared unlawful

In accordance with Law 15/2022, the Supreme Court has declared article 18.5 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement for the Medical Transport Sector in Catalonia, which states that the attendance salary supplement cannot be paid to employees who have been off sick from work for more than three days, to be unlawful on the grounds of discrimination. The court held that this measure disproportionately penalises employees on sick leave, and therefore constitutes discrimination on the grounds of illness.

8. Fixed personal salary supplements replacing previous salary supplements do not constitute a dual pay scale

Three salary supplements were introduced to compensate for removing pre-existing ones (length of service pay, social compensation pay and performance-based pay), which meant that the new supplements were justified on reasonable and objective grounds. In addition, these salary supplements were fixed in amount and not subject to review and, therefore could not be considered part of a discriminatory dual pay scale.