Browse through brief employment and labor law updates from around the globe. Contact a Littler attorney for more information or view our global locations.

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New Decree Establishes Requirement for Gender Equality Plans

New Order or Decree

Authors: Sonia Cortés García, Partner and Ariadna Arriola Cabello, Associate - Abdón Pedrajas | Littler

Royal Decree 901/2020, issued on October 13, 2020, established new gender equality measures, including the requirement to conduct a pay audit and set up a committee to monitor compliance with the plan. The “Equality Plan Decree” is effective as of January 14, 2021. Companies that already meet the thresholds must initiate the procedure for negotiating their plans by setting up the negotiation committee within three months and must have an equality plan negotiated, approved and submitted for registration by March 14, 2022.

Companies that already have an equality plan in effect must adapt their equality plans within the period provided for their revision and, in any case, by January 14, 2022, at the latest, after negotiating with the employees’ representatives. The equality plan must include a pay audit. Failure to comply with the obligations in terms of having an equality plan will be subject to fines up to € 187,515 and other administrative sanctions such as loss of public benefits and bonuses for a period ranging from six months to two years.

New Decree Establishes Gender Pay Transparency Requirements

New Order or Decree

Authors: Sonia Cortés García, Partner and Ariadna Arriola Cabello, Associate - Abdón Pedrajas | Littler

New Royal Decree 902/2020 on Equality Pay for Women and Men, issued on October 13, 2020, enters into force on April 14, 2021, with phased implementation deadlines, based on workforce size. Among other things, all companies regardless of the number of employees must have a salary record of the entire workforce, including management and senior positions. This record will include the average and median of base salaries, complementary salary and extraordinary payments for one calendar year period, broken down by gender and professional group, professional category, level, job position or any other applicable classification system. The employees’ representative must be consulted before the register is drawn up. Employees can have access to those records through their employees’ representatives.

Those companies that are obligated to have an equality plan must also have a pay audit, which will be part of the equality plan. Thus, this audit will have the same duration as the equality plan unless otherwise provided. This audit requires the employer to carry out an assessment of the company’s remuneration by evaluating the job positions and provide an action plan to correct any pay gap. Furthermore, if the audit shows that the average or the median of the total workforce remuneration of one gender is higher than the other (by at least 25% higher), the salary record must include an objective justification based on evidence that this disparity is not due to gender-related reasons.

Extension of the State of Alarm

New Order or Decree

Authors: Sonia Cortés García, Partner and Ariadna Arriola Cabello, Associate - Abdón Pedrajas | Littler

Royal Decree 956/2020 of November 3 extended the State of Alarm to contain the pandemic until May 9, 2021. The State of Alarm also imposes a range of restrictive measures such as (i) limiting mobility at night; (ii) restricting entry and exit to and from regional communities, and (iii) limiting the number of people at meetings in public and private places.

Eligibility for a Bonus When Employment Relationship Ends Before Accrual Period

Precedential Decision by Judiciary or Regulatory Agency

Authors: Sonia Cortés García, Partner and Ariadna Arriola Cabello, Associate - Abdón Pedrajas | Littler

On October 22, 2020, Spain’s Supreme Court issued a judgment interpreting when an employee can be eligible for a bonus when the objectives are met, but the employment relationship is terminated before the accrual period. The Court ruled that an employee’s voluntary leave/resignation without express provision in the employment contract of the pro-rata of the bonus means that the requirement of loyalty and permanence for its accrual is not met. Thus, that any employee leaving the company before the accrual period of the bonus will not be entitled to it. If the worker meets the permanence requirement and fulfills the objectives, the employer has no discretion and the employee would receive the bonus. However, if the relationship is terminated for reasons beyond the employee’s control (i.e. death, retirement, permanent disability and/or objective dismissal, both rendered justified and unfair), the employee will be entitled to the bonus.

Thresholds for Collective Redundancies

Precedential Decision by Judiciary or Regulatory Agency

Authors: Sonia Cortés García, Partner and Ariadna Arriola Cabello, Associate - Abdón Pedrajas | Littler

Under the ECJ Decision C-300/19 - Marclean Technologies, S. L. U., dated November 11, 2020, a Member State legislation (such as the Spanish Workers’ Statute) providing a different threshold would hinder the application of the Directive 98/59/EC of July 20, 1998, on the approximation of the Laws of the Member States relating to collective redundancies if such new thresholds would hinder the consultation obligations that would have otherwise been applicable according to the Directive. The ECJ ruled that for the thresholds set in Spain to be in line with those set by the Directive when individual dismissals would have been considered “collective redundancies,” the reference period to take into account is any period of 30 or 90 consecutive days during which the individual dismissal took place (both before and after) and during which the greatest number of dismissals were made by the employer for one or more reasons not attributable to an employee’s decision.