Types of Work Contracts in Spain: Indefinido, Temporal, Parcial and Your Rights
Since Spain's labour reform (RDL 32/2021), the permanent contract (indefinido) is the default. Temporary contracts are restricted to specific, justified causes. Your contract type affects your severance pay, probation period and rights if things go wrong.
How Spanish contracts work
An employment contract in Spain may be written or verbal, but many contracts must be in writing: training contracts, part-time, fijo discontinuo, relief contracts, fixed-term contracts longer than four weeks, remote work and other legal cases. The employer reports the contract to SEPE within 10 days, and the contract governs: salary, hours, job category, workplace, duration and probation period.
Document review
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Contrato indefinido (permanent)
Contrato indefinido ordinario
No end date. The standard contract for most workers. Subtypes: full-time, part-time, fijo discontinuo.
Probation period (período de prueba): unless the convenio says otherwise, max 6 months for qualified professionals (titulados) and 2 months for others; in companies with fewer than 25 workers, up to 3 months for non-qualified staff. For temporary contracts of 6 months or less, max 1 month unless the convenio says otherwise. During probation, either party can end the contract without severance or notice.
Severance if fired: Objective dismissal with valid cause = 20 days/year worked (max 12 months pay); disciplinary dismissal declared procedente normally has no severance. Improcedente (unfair) = 33 days/year (max 24 months). Nulo (void, e.g. discrimination) = mandatory reinstatement + back pay.
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Contrato temporal (fixed-term)
Circunstancias de la producción
For temporary spikes in demand that the normal workforce cannot handle. Maximum 6 months (extendable to 12 by convenio colectivo). Or 90 non-continuous days per calendar year for "situaciones ocasionales, previsibles y de duración reducida" (predictable short-term peaks like Christmas sales).
Sustitución (replacement)
To replace a worker with the right to return: maternity/paternity leave, sick leave, excedencia, while a selection process is pending (max 3 months). The contract must name the replaced person and the cause.
Severance at end of a valid fixed-term contract: 12 days per year worked, except training contracts and fixed-term substitution contracts.
Training contracts
Formación en alternancia
For people without the professional qualification required for a professional-practice contract; the age limit up to 30 applies only to certain certificates and alternating training programmes. Combines paid work with formal training. Max 2 years. Salary: at least 60% of convenio salary (year 1), 75% (year 2) — never below SMI pro-rata. Work time cannot exceed 65% (year 1) or 85% (year 2).
Práctica profesional
For recent graduates (within 3 years of degree, or 5 if disabled). Max 1 year. Pay is set by the convenio or, failing that, by the relevant professional group; never below the minimum for the alternating training contract or the pro-rata SMI. Must be related to the qualification obtained.
Part-time (parcial)
A part-time contract specifies exact hours (per day, week, month or year). It can be indefinido or temporal. Key points:
- Same rights as full-time, proportional to hours
- Overtime (horas extraordinarias) is prohibited — only "horas complementarias" (extra hours agreed in advance, max 30% of regular hours for indefinido, 15% for temporal)
- You have priority to switch to full-time if a vacancy opens (derecho de preferencia)
- Social Security contributions are proportional — this affects your future paro and pension
Fijo discontinuo
A permanent contract for work that is seasonal or intermittent (tourism, agriculture, event services). You are "called" (llamamiento) each season. Between seasons you can collect unemployment benefit. Key characteristics:
- Indefinido (permanent) — seniority accumulates across seasons
- Employer must call you following the convenio's criteria; failure to call = dismissal you can challenge
- Full rights (severance, unemployment) based on total time since hiring, not just active periods
- Post-reform, this replaces the old "contrato de obra y servicio" and many former temporals
The season started and they did not call you? Act inside 20 working days
The most litigated fijo-discontinuo problem is the missing llamamiento. The rules that decide it:
- No call when the season/campaign restarts = a dismissal, not a pause. You challenge it with a demanda por despido before the Juzgado de lo Social.
- The clock is 20 working days (caducidad), counted from the failure to call or from the moment you learned of it — for example, when you find out colleagues were called back and you were not. Evidence of that date matters: messages, the campaign's public start, colleagues' testimony.
- Your antigüedad covers the whole relationship — from the first contract day, inactivity periods included (Supreme Court doctrine, incl. STS 255/2025). That drives severance (33 days/year if the dismissal is ruled unfair) and convenio seniority rights.
- Collecting paro between seasons does not end the contract: inactivity is a legal unemployment situation, and the benefit simply suspends when you are called back. Claiming it is not "quitting".
- Silence is the enemy: if you suspect the season restarted without you, send a burofax asking for your llamamiento date the same week — it fixes the dates and shows availability.
Your rights regardless of contract type
Universal worker rights in Spain
- Minimum salary: SMI (€1,221/month in 14 payments in 2026)
- Social Security registration from day 1 (you can verify via vida laboral)
- 30 calendar days of paid holiday per year (2.5 days/month)
- Sick leave (baja) paid from day 4 of illness
- Written contract when the law requires it, and written information on essential conditions if the relationship lasts more than four weeks
- No discrimination by nationality, gender, religion or disability
- Convenio colectivo improvements (often: extra pagas, better salary, reduced hours)
What to check before signing
- Salary vs convenio: Look up your sector's convenio colectivo — your salary cannot be below what it stipulates for your category
- Job category (grupo profesional): Must match your actual work. If you're hired as an "auxiliar" but perform higher-level professional duties, you may be underpaid and incorrectly classified for Social Security purposes
- Hours: Verify weekly hours match what was discussed. Part-time must specify exact figures
- Probation period: Check it matches legal or convenio limits (6, 3, 2 or 1 month depending on the case). Some convenios reduce it
- Contract type: If temporal, the cause must be explicit and real. If no valid cause is stated, ask for the contract to be treated as indefinido or report the issue
- Centro de trabajo: Where you'll work. Mobility clauses should be limited
Problems and how to act
- No written contract when writing was required: By law, the relationship is presumed indefinido and full-time unless proven otherwise. Demand written formalisation. If refused, report to Inspección de Trabajo
- Temporal with no valid cause: You're legally indefinido. While the relationship lasts you can rely on that status and ask for it to be recognised. But once the contract has ended the deadline is strict: a claim against dismissal or against the termination of a temporary contract must be brought within 20 working days, and that period is one of caducidad (ET art. 59.3). Being recognised as indefinido affects how severance is calculated, but it does not extend that deadline
- Working more hours than contract states: keep evidence and request formal recognition. If the employer refuses, report the issue to the Inspección de Trabajo or bring a claim before the labour court
- Not registered with Social Security: Check your vida laboral immediately. Report to Inspección de Trabajo — your employer faces major fines and you recover lost rights retroactively
- Salary below convenio: File a claim at SMAC (papeleta de conciliación) for salary differences. 1-year limitation period
Frequently Asked Questions
What if my employer doesn't give me a written contract?
A contract can be verbal in some cases, but if written form was legally required and not respected, the law presumes an indefinido full-time relationship unless proven otherwise. You can demand written formalisation and, if refused, report to Inspección de Trabajo.
Can my temporal contract become indefinido?
Yes, automatically if: (1) the stated cause is not valid or doesn't exist, (2) you continue working past the maximum duration, (3) you've had two or more temporal contracts totaling 18+ months in a 24-month period for the same position. In all cases, you are indefinido by operation of law — you don't need the employer's agreement.
What is the probation period and can I be fired during it?
The período de prueba is an initial phase. Unless the convenio says otherwise, the maximum is 6 months for qualified professionals, 2 months for others, 3 months for non-qualified staff in companies with fewer than 25 workers, and 1 month for temporary contracts of 6 months or less. During that period, either party can terminate without severance, notice or reason. After it ends, the employer needs a legal cause (or must pay severance for improcedente). Some convenios reduce the maximum probation period.
Do I have the same rights on a part-time contract?
Yes — all rights apply proportionally. Same holidays, same Social Security coverage, same severance rules. The only difference: contributions are lower (affecting future paro and pension amounts), and horas extraordinarias are prohibited (only horas complementarias are allowed).
What is a fijo discontinuo contract?
A permanent contract for seasonal or intermittent work. You're called each season by seniority. Between seasons, you can collect unemployment. Seniority accumulates over your entire hiring period. If the employer doesn't call you when the season starts, it's treated as unfair dismissal.
How do I know if my contract is legal?
Check: (1) you received a signed copy, (2) the type matches reality (temporal has a valid cause), (3) category and salary match your convenio, (4) you're registered in Social Security (check vida laboral). If any of these fail, you can report to Inspección de Trabajo or consult a labour lawyer — initial consultations are typically free.
Quick summary
A real case: getting a permanent post later does not undo the abuse of temporary contracts
She was kept on temporary contracts for years. Then she won a selection process and became permanent — and the employer treated the matter as closed. The court did not. The High Court of Galicia decided two cases against two public administrations — the Xunta de Galicia and the Confederación Hidrográfica del Miño-Sil — and in both found an abuse of fixed-term contracting: the workers had been kept on interim contracts for long periods. Each case was awarded €10,000 in moral damages. The court applied recent case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and of the Spanish Supreme Court, and additionally sent copies of the judgments to the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate so that sanction proceedings could be opened.
What was not obvious. By the time of the judgments both workers had already obtained permanent posts by passing a selection process. The natural assumption is that this settles the matter. The court held the opposite: “el proceso selectivo convocado, por el que la parte demandante adquirió la condición de personal laboral fijo, no puede ser entendido como una medida” — passing the selection process is not a measure that remedies the abuse. In other words, becoming permanent does not cure years of fixed-term contracts and does not extinguish the compensation for them. The other side of the same judgments: the claims for termination compensation were rejected, because there had been no termination attributable to the employer — both workers had become permanent. The award here is for the abuse itself, not for a dismissal.
Outcome: €10,000 in moral damages in each of the two cases, plus referral to the Labour Inspectorate. The termination-compensation claims were dismissed, since no termination had occurred.
The mechanism is in force: the court relies on recent CJEU and Spanish Supreme Court case law on abuse of temporary employment. A caveat on how far it carries: this is a regional appeal (suplicación) binding these cases only; it creates no binding precedent and another court on similar facts may decide otherwise. On the identifiers: the CENDOJ catalogue header for this document reads “Fecha: 15/07/2020”, but the judgment itself is dated “a quince de xullo de dous mil vinte e seis” and numbered 03290/2026. We take the date from the text of the judgment; the primary source prints no ECLI or ROJ, so we do not print them.
High Court of Justice of Galicia, Social Chamber, Section 1 · 15.07.2026
Above is how the contract types differ. If your fixed-term contracts were rolled over for years, the sum to work out is not only your current rights but the price of the abuse itself.
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Checked by the RightNOW team · Change history
- Language review: wording and terms checked, corrections applied. Versions: RU, EN · Антон Белянский, QA review
- Guide expanded: new sections answering more real situations.
- Legal basis, deadlines and figures re-checked against official sources.
- Page published.
This guide is general information about Spanish law, not a legal opinion on your case. Rules change and outcomes depend on your own facts and documents — check your situation before you act on it.