Types of Employment Contracts: Key Features and Regulations

Posted on Dec 9, 2024 in Law & Jurisprudence

I. Training Contracts

A. Employment Contract for Training

Definition: A contract that is intended for the employee to learn a trade.
Requirements for Workers: Workers who can be hired with this type of contract must meet the following requirements:

Be between 16 and 20 years old. Exceptions: If the worker is disabled, there is no age limit. For students, workers, and workshop schools, the ceiling is 24 years.
They cannot have any qualification referring to the business they are undertaking. If they did, what would come would be an internship contract.
Have not already done this activity in the company for at least one year.
Have not already been engaged in training and have exhausted the maximum duration of the contract.

The Duration of the Contract: It lasts a minimum of six months and a maximum of two years. It is allowed to extend to three years. For disabled workers, up to 4 years.

If the contract is concluded for a period less than its maximum duration, it may be extended by agreement between the parties up to two times, with each extension being at least 6 months in duration. This is called an express extension.

There is also an automatic extension:

The contract was concluded for a period less than its maximum length: If once the final term is reached, the employee continues to work, the contract is automatically extended to the legal maximum.
The contract was awarded for its maximum duration: If the final term is reached and the employee continues to work, the contract will be extended indefinitely.

For employment contracts, termination must be reported. The withdrawal means that either party will have to communicate the termination to the other.

If the contract is more than one year, it must be denounced with 15 days in advance.

Although the worker has the option to terminate the contract, if he does so, he does not collect unemployment benefits.

Social Security Contributions:

No unemployment contributions.
A fixed amount is quoted annually, determined by the government. If the worker is disabled, there is a 50% allowance of the employer’s contribution for common contingencies.
Contribution for the employment contract for training is:
Common contingencies: 29.95 euros are on behalf of the company and 5.97 euros for the worker.
For professional contingencies: 4.12 euros on account of the company.
For training: 1.10 euros by the company, 0.15 euros by the worker.
FOGASA: 2.28 euros in charge of the company.
Overtime: General rules apply.

Salary: The salary is guaranteed at least the minimum wage, but it is reduced in the same proportion as effective work decreases. Theoretical work is not paid. It is the only worker who by law is not entitled to minimum wage.
Maximum Number of Trainees for the Workplace: Depending on the number of workers in the workplace, as a rule, the maximum number of apprentices that can be hired is 30 with a staff of 501 people.
The Workday: A part of the day is devoted to actual work and another to theoretical training.

Theoretical training can be face-to-face or at a distance.

If the worker does not have the title of ESO, the theoretical training will initially be directed at obtaining the title.

The theoretical minimum is 15% of the normal working day in the activity.

The apprentice will be appointed a guardian.

The Form of Contract: The contract must be in writing and on the official form, visa (sealed), and a copy placed in an employment office.
Company Certification: Upon completion of the contract, the company gives the worker a certificate stating the level of education achieved.

B. Internship Contract

Definition: A contract that is to allow the worker, who already has knowledge about the profession, to gain experience in it.
Requirements for Workers:

Have a particular qualification to enable him to perform a work activity.
Have completed their studies within a maximum period of four years to be engaged in this way. If the worker is disabled, the term is 6 years. The period begins to run from the completion of studies and after obtaining the degree.
Not have been employed in practice in the same or a different company for the same activity and the maximum duration of the contract (two years).

The Duration of the Contract: It will last a minimum of six months and a maximum of two years, within which those agreements will set the specific period.

The whole system of contract extensions or expansions is set out in the same terms as we saw in the training contract.

The Contribution of Social Security: General rules apply. Handicap is 50% allowance of the company quota for common contingencies.
Salary: By law, this worker is guaranteed during the first year of the contract 60%, during the 2nd year of the contract 75% of the salary that he would have been entitled to if not in practice.

If the employee is employed part-time, as provided above, it is reduced by the same proportion as the day is reduced.

The Workday: It allows hiring both part-time and full-time.
Trial Period: These workers have specific testing deadlines for themselves and are 1 month maximum for medium-grade graduates and two months maximum for graduates of a higher grade.
Certification of the Company: As in the employment contract for training.

II. Part-Time Contract

Definition: A contract in which you work a day less than usual activity.
Special Features in Terms of Social Security Contributions: For the calculation of the contribution bases, Step 4 of the General Rules does not apply. Part-time contracts have no minimum base, either monthly or daily minimum stops, but it goes by hours worked.

Practical course: Calculate the contribution bases for common contingencies and professionals hired a part-time employee of a trading group and that in the month that has seen refiérela listing of items pay 765 euros for 76 hours worked.

Common Contingencies:

The hourly minimum basis for common contingencies for part-time workers are those that are detailed below:

Group contribution minimum hourly basis (1, 2, 3, 4-11) 6.22, 5.16, 4.49, 4.45

The maximum contribution base for common contingencies will be the general one (in 3198 euros/month)

Professional Contingencies:

The lower limit time for professional contingencies for all groups is 4.45 euros/hour.

The upper limit for professionals is the general contingency (3198 EUR/month)

Overtime: There is talk of additional hours, and by law, they can never exceed 15% of the actual workday. Collective agreement can be extended up to 60% of the agreed day.
Arrangements for Part-Time Contracts: A contract that takes place less than a day in hours, days, weeks, months, or a year less than the normal working day in the activity. Many variants of part-time contracts are derived. It may be a case of a worker who works every day but they are working fewer hours, it may also be the case of not working every day that they are working. A peculiar case is the work of the season, called intermittent permanent workers, and the company is obliged to call them workers at the beginning of the activity.

Another method is partial retirement. A worker at least 60 years old who meets all the requirements to collect his pension with his employer may agree to reduce the time between 25% and 85% and retire partially. For that to be true, the law requires the company to hire another part-time worker who is also covering the hours they are not.

III. Temporary Contracts

According to their duration, the contract may be of 2 types:

Temporary Contract: It is known in advance the date or time of termination.
Permanent Contract: This is one where you do not know in advance the date or time of termination.

The contracts within the group of temporary are only those that at no time can be indefinite. This does not mean that there are no more temporary contracts.
The law always shows a preference for permanent contracts.

The conditions of the temporary contract are:

1. Contract for Production Circumstances

Definition: It is intended to address the market demands circumstantially, or excessive accumulation of work orders, even for the normal activity of the company.

Companies may have an excess in sales or production and require an increase in staff, and for these cases, the contract is necessary eventually.

Duration of Contract: The law says it can last up to six months within a reference period of 12 months. You can extend the reference period to 18 months and can extend the maximum duration of the contract at most three-quarters of the reference period but never exceeding 12 months.

Possibilities:

Extend the maximum contract length without extending the period of reference: In this case, the contract cannot exceed nine months.
Do not extend the maximum contract duration (six months) and change the reference period. Contract 6 months, reference period of 18 months.
Increase the maximum duration of the contract and the reference period. Reference period 18 months and 12 months duration of the contract.

The Working Day: It enables both full-time and part-time.
How: You must be in writing only if it lasts more than four weeks or is part-time.
Compensation: You are entitled to an allowance of eight days’ wages for each year worked or proportion.

B. Contract Work or Service

Definition: It aims to create a work or service noun within the normal activity of the company.
Duration of Contract: It will end when you finish the work or service provided.
How to: Always in writing.
Hours of Work: It allows both full and part-time.
Compensation: As in the previous contract.

C. Interim Contract

Definition: It comes in two situations:

To replace workers who have a reserved job.
To hold a job while performing a selection process to hire the most suitable worker.

Duration:

The contract ends when the incumbent runs out of the reserved job and not when it is incorporated.
In the case of private companies, the selection procedure cannot last more than three months. In the case of public administration, there is no maximum duration.

The Workday: Allowed only part-time in two circumstances:

When the incumbent has part-time contracts.
In case of reduced working hours when it is responsible for a child under 8 years old or disabled and also when it is responsible for a relative until the 2nd grade for their age, illness, or accident cannot fend for themselves. To complete this part-time, it is allowed to hire another interim contract worker. It is also possible the interim contract to complete the reduction of working hours in case of suspension of maternity leave per child premature or who for any reason should be hospitalized after birth.

Form: Always in writing.