The Directive aims to establish a system that improves transparency and predictability in employment relationships while adapting employment regulations to new business and production models.
In line with Principle 7 of the European Pillar of Social Rights, workers have the right to receive written information at the beginning of their employment relationship regarding the rights and obligations arising from it.
The European Directive therefore updates the list of essential elements of an employment contract that employers must communicate to workers in writing.
Many of the rights and obligations established under Directive (EU) 2019/1152 are already covered by Spanish labour legislation, particularly those concerning employees’ right to information about the main conditions under which they perform their work.
However, these information rights are now being expanded in accordance with European regulations.
EU legislation provides several mechanisms for Member States to transpose European directives into national law. These include national laws and regulations, as well as agreements between employers and workers’ representatives when they have the appropriate mandate.
In this case, since many of the obligations established by the Directive are already expressly included in Spanish legislation, the Directive is being partially transposed through a Royal Decree.
What information will your company have to provide?
Employers will be required to provide employees in writing with mandatory information concerning essential aspects of their employment relationship.
Among other things, companies will have to specify:
- The basic salary and each individual salary supplement, clearly differentiated.
- How variable remuneration is calculated and the criteria determining whether an employee is entitled to receive it.
- The duration and distribution of daily, weekly and annual working hours.
- The procedures established for changing working hours or shifts.
- Existing arrangements concerning overtime and how it is paid.
- The duration of annual leave and how holiday periods are determined.
- The employee’s right to training provided by the company.
- The probationary period and its conditions.
- The procedure for terminating the employment contract, including the applicable notice periods.
- The collective bargaining agreement applicable to the employee and the period during which it remains in force.
The aim of the new rules is to ensure that employment conditions that workers often know only in general terms, through internal company procedures or after specifically asking about them, are communicated in a clearer and properly documented way.
Irregular working hours: companies will also have to explain how they work
One particularly significant change concerns working time.
When a company operates an irregular distribution of working hours, the mandatory employment information provided to workers must identify the system being used.
This must include the reference hours and days during which the company may require the employee to work, as well as the minimum notice periods that must be respected before a work assignment begins or is cancelled.
This is particularly relevant because greater predictability regarding working hours directly affects employees’ ability to balance their professional and personal lives and organise their time outside work.