Employment

In Spain, the National Employment System consists of two main bodies:

• State Public Employment Service (SEPE).
• Public Employment Services of the different autonomous communities.

State Public Employment Service (SEPE)

The State Public Employment Service (SEPE) is a body, attached to the Ministry of Labour and Social Economy, which has various functions, such as managing unemployment benefits, coordinating the territorial network or developing measures and actions for employment.

However, the implementation of all the employment programmes and measures prepared by SEPE must be adapted to the different territorial realities of the different autonomous communities, through its Public Employment Services.

Functions:

• Process and pay:
  • Contributory unemployment benefits.
  • Unemployment benefits.
  • Active Insertion Income (RAI).
  • Agricultural unemployment allowance and agricultural income (Andalusia and Extremadura).
  • Extraordinary unemployment allowance (SED).
• Process and pay the accumulated payment of unemployment benefit: Accumulated and advance payment of the contributory benefit for return to the country of origin (APRE).
• Registration in job vacancies and facilitating the search for job vacancies and the inclusion of curriculum vitae to promote territorial mobility, through the Single Employment Portal, "Empléate" and the EURES Network (Network of European Employment Services).
• Issue certificates of receipt of benefits.
• Obtaining the CL@VE registration for identification and electronic signature in procedures with the Administration in the offices of benefits of the SEPE, Provincial Directorates and Central Services.
• Telephone support for the management of electronic services.
• Process and pay the accumulated payment of unemployment benefit: capitalisation (or one-off payment) for the promotion of self-employment.
• Registration in the Register of the National Youth Guarantee System.
• Telephone Information and Support Service.

Structure:

SEPE is composed of:

• Central Services
• A territorial network composed of:
  • Seventeen Territorial Coordinations.Fifty-two Provincial Directorates.
  • A wide network of Benefits Offices, distributed throughout the fifty provinces, Ceuta and Melilla.

Regional Public Employment Services

The Public Employment Services of the autonomous communities are bodies or entities that are responsible for employment programs and labor intermediation assigned to them by their respective administrations.  

Functions:

They are competent to perform the following functions (among others):

• On-the-job training.
• Work orientation.
• Intermediation between supply and demand for employment.
• Care for unemployed/occupied people and companies.

The various employment and training programmes promoted and coordinated by SEPE are mostly managed through the Autonomous Communities.

However, the ideal is that you locate the corresponding office, within your autonomous community, to request the information personally, or visit the electronic headquarters.

Structure:

Each public employment service of each autonomous community, according to its capacity for self-organization and its different territorial needs, will be equipped with the necessary organs and structure, to provide the best service to the citizen.

Types of redundancies, compensation and time limits

Labour legislation distinguishes between various types of dismissal, each with a specific compensation scheme (arts. 51-56 ET):

• Target dismissal: due to economic, technical, organizational or production causes, or due to ineptitude. Compensation: 20 days' salary per year worked, with a maximum of 12 monthly instalments.
• Disciplinary dismissal: for serious and culpable non-compliance. It does not entail compensation, unless it is declared inadmissible.
• Unlawful dismissal: when the alleged causes are not proven or the legal formalities are not fulfilled. Compensation: 33 days per year worked with a maximum of 24 monthly payments (45 days/year for seniority prior to 12/02/2012).
• Collective dismissal (ERE): requires a consultation and communication procedure to the labour authority. Compensation equivalent to that of the target dismissal.

Since April 2025, the Organic Law 1/2025 allows to request the judicial termination of the contract with compensation equivalent to unfair dismissal in cases of non-payment or repeated salary delays.

The European Committee of Social Rights has questioned whether the current compensation limits may not be sufficiently dissuasive, calling for a reform to ensure adequate compensation in line with the European Social Charter.

After analyzing the different modalities of dismissal and the compensation that can be derived from each one, it is essential to take into account the time limit and calculation rules for challenging it. The worker has 20 working days to claim against the dismissal, counted from the day following the one in which it occurs. This is a expiration period, so that, once it has elapsed, the right to challenge ceases. Only those items are included in the calculation. working days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays of a national, regional or local nature at the seat of the competent judicial body. On the other hand, public holidays in the locality of the worker, days with practical difficulties in the procedural process (such as a strike) are not excluded, neither the month of August nor the period between December 24 and January 6, except in what coincide with non-working days. It is appropriate to differentiate this regime from that governing the claims of an economic nature arising from the employment contract, which are not subject to revocation, but to one-year limitation period provided for in Article 59(1) of the Workers’ Statute.