Permanent Contract Resulting from the Successive Fixed-Term Employment Contracts in Spain

According to Article 15.5 of the Spanish Workers’ Statute (Estatuto de los Trabajadores), workers in Spain will acquire the status of permanent workers when hired for longer than 24 months within a 30-month period, continuously or with interruption, for the same or different job with the same company or group of companies by two or more temporary contracts, regardless of whether the workers are hired directly or assigned through a temporary employment agency, under the same or various temporary contract arrangements.

The procedure set out in the preceding paragraph will also apply in cases of succession or business subrogation under the provisions of law or the agreement.

Temporary contracts are non-computable ones (along with training contracts, replacement contracts, and provisional contracts) within the framework of public programs for employment/training and those that labour insertion companies use.

For example, although the worker who has a replacement contract has been previously or subsequently (to such contract) hired in his or her company under other forms of a temporary contract, the duration of the replacement contract will not be taken into account in any situation.

Considering the peculiarities of each activity and the characteristics of the job, collective bargaining agreements establish requirements aimed to prevent the misuse of fixed-term contracts with individual workers to perform the same job, previously covered by fixed-term contracts, with or without interruption, including assignment contracts concluded with temporary employment agencies.

This article is not considered as legal advice