Employment contracts in Spain

As in many places, remote work in Spain has become a lot more common over the past few years. In 2020, the Spanish government introduced a new law to regulate remote working, after the COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge in remote employment. This law is meant to ensure employees’ rights are protected even when they are working from home.

Remote working agreements in Spain

The first major change introduced by the new remote work law is that employers and employees have to sign a remote work agreement for employees to work remotely. The employee must send this agreement to their representatives, who have to file a copy with the Labour Office.

There are certain compulsory clauses that have to be included in a remote work agreement, including:

• The location(s) the worker is allowed to work from
• An inventory of the tools and equipment the employee will need
• The duration of the remote working agreement
• The employee’s working hours
• The proportion of time that the employee will work remotely
• The procedure in case of technical difficulties
• Details about how confidential data will be protected
• How the employer will control, track, and monitor the employee
• The employee’s right to disconnect outside of work hours
• Health and safety for remote workers

Remote work allowances in Spain

The remote working law also stipulates that employers have to reimburse or otherwise compensate employees for expenses they incur by working from home. For example, employees may have to spend more on utilities if they are at home all day instead of working on-site. The exact details of how the employee will be compensated should be set out in their individual remote working agreement. For example, some employers choose to provide a monthly remote working allowance to cover any costs.

Control, monitoring, and surveillance of remote workers in Spain

Employers in Spain have the right to monitor their employees, as long as this surveillance complies with data protection and privacy laws. However, they have to tell the employee how they plan to do this and detail it in the remote working agreement.

Right to disconnect in Spain

The remote working law also provides for employees’ right to ‘disconnect’ after their working day. Employers can choose how to handle this, but best practices include limiting the use of work communication outside of the employee’s normal working hours.

Health and safety for remote workers in Spain

Employers have a responsibility to safeguard their employees’ health and safety, even when they’re working from home. Under Spain’s remote working law, employers have to carry out a risk assessment of the employee’s working environment. This should identify any possible risks to the employees’ health and safety (including mental health). Employers should then put in place policies and procedures to mitigate these risks as much as possible.

Spain’s remote work visa

Because of the rise in remote work around the world, many countries have introduced remote work visas, which allow employees or freelancers to live and work in the country for a limited period without being subject to the usual immigration requirements. These are sometimes called ‘digital nomad visas’.

In Spain, the remote work visa requirements include either an undergraduate or postgraduate degree or three years of experience in their field. Employees can only get the digital nomad visa if their employer is located outside of the Spanish national territory.

That means an employee could use the digital nomad visa to spend time working remotely in Spain for a UK company (for example), but not to work for a Spanish company, even if they work remotely. Freelancers can work for Spanish clients as long as they don’t make up more than 20% of their annual income.