Employment Lawyers in Madrid

Employment law disputes rarely arrive at a law firm as isolated problems supported by perfectly organized documentation.

Workers often know that something is wrong, but the employment relationship may have developed over months or years through difficult-to-understand payroll statements, schedules that do not match the hours officially recorded, WhatsApp communications, incomplete timekeeping systems, part-time contracts that do not reflect the work actually performed, or management decisions taken only after the employment relationship has already deteriorated.

At EBAN Abogados, we regularly handle employment matters in Madrid, from negotiation and pre-litigation settlement proceedings to cases before the labor courts and, when appropriate, appeals before the High Court of Justice of Madrid.

Our experience has taught us an important principle in this area: before deciding what to claim, it is necessary to reconstruct the employment relationship properly and determine what can actually be proven.

Wage claims, unpaid amounts and payroll issues

A significant proportion of the employment matters we handle in Madrid involve financial claims.

The problem is not always simply an unpaid salary.

We encounter salary differences that have accumulated over several months, omitted supplements, incorrectly calculated compensation items, working hours that do not correspond to the formal contract, and payroll statements whose structure makes it difficult even for the employee to understand exactly what is being paid.

For this reason, before filing a claim we review the employment contract, applicable collective bargaining agreement, payroll records, Social Security employment history, actual working hours and communications exchanged with the employer.

In many cases, the financial dispute is merely the visible consequence of an employment relationship that has developed differently from the way it appears on paper.

Overtime and working-time records

Claims involving excessive working hours are among the employment disputes that present the greatest evidentiary difficulties.

Employers are required to maintain daily working-time records. In practice, however, what we encounter does not always reflect that legal requirement.

Some employees sign time sheets that have already been prepared by the employer and do not include the additional hours actually worked. In other cases, the timekeeping system is incomplete. Some companies simply do not maintain reliable working-time records at all.

However, the absence of proper records does not mean that any amount of overtime claimed by an employee will automatically be accepted by a court.

The evidence has to be developed.

WhatsApp messages, emails, work schedules, job sheets, delivery notes, computer records, witnesses, access-control systems, communications with customers or the objective organization of the work itself may all become relevant when reconstructing working hours that do not appear in the formal documentation.

For this reason, an overtime claim must be prepared from the evidence, not merely from the calculation.

Part-time contracts where full-time hours are actually worked

Another recurring issue arises when an employee formally has a part-time contract but in practice works hours that are close to, or effectively equivalent to, a full-time schedule.

The consequences go beyond monthly salary.

They may affect Social Security contributions, future benefits, unemployment protection, disability benefits or retirement entitlements, as well as revealing a discrepancy between the formal contract and the work actually performed.

We encounter these situations particularly in sectors involving long opening hours, variable shifts or informally organized workforces.

In these cases, we examine not only what the contract says, but what actually happened every day.

Hospitality and difficult-to-document employment relationships

The hospitality sector generates a significant number of disputes involving working hours, part-time contracts, wages and Social Security registration.

We have encountered establishments where the formally declared workforce does not correspond to the people actually providing services, employees rotating through shifts without clear documentation, or organizational systems that make it difficult to determine who was really working at a particular time.

In these cases, asking whether a written contract exists is not enough.

It is necessary to reconstruct who gave the instructions, when the employee worked, how payment was made, who was present and what documentary trace the work has left behind.

Social media can also become an unexpected source of evidence. Photographs, promotional videos and posts published by the establishment itself may help establish who was working there when the formal employment documentation is insufficient.

Foreign workers

In Madrid, employment disputes frequently overlap with immigration issues.

Many foreign workers, particularly those who are in Spain without regular immigration status, believe that they have no employment rights or that filing a claim will automatically harm their immigration position.

That is not the case.

A worker’s immigration status and the employment rights arising from work actually performed are separate legal questions.

The absence of an administrative authorization does not make the work itself disappear, nor does it eliminate the employment rights that may legally arise from the relationship.

For this reason, when employment law and immigration law intersect, we analyze both aspects together so that fear does not prevent the worker from properly assessing the available legal options.

Domestic employment and informal working relationships

Domestic employment presents particular difficulties.

We continue to encounter relationships that have developed for years with very little formal documentation: no written contract, payments that are difficult to reconstruct, working hours agreed verbally and terminations communicated with similar informality.

The absence of documents does not necessarily mean that no employment relationship existed.

WhatsApp conversations can be particularly important in these cases.

Apparently routine messages about working hours, shift changes, vacations, payments, instructions, purchases or caregiving tasks can often help reconstruct an employment relationship that appeared almost nonexistent on paper.

We also encounter situations in which the duties originally agreed gradually expand into something very different, while salary, working hours and professional classification remain unchanged.

Disciplinary dismissals

Disciplinary dismissals require particularly careful analysis.

In some cases, the facts alleged against the employee are not sufficiently proven. In others, an incident may have occurred, but its seriousness does not necessarily justify the most severe employment sanction. There are also cases where the employee has made mistakes that make the defense more difficult.

Our role is not to assume that every disciplinary dismissal is unfair.

It is to determine what happened, what the employer can prove, how the allegations were documented and whether the sanction is proportionate to the conduct attributed to the employee.

We also encounter what we might internally describe as opportunistic dismissals: situations that could probably have been clarified through minimal communication but are instead used immediately as grounds for termination.

Each case requires a factual analysis and should not be approached through automatic conclusions.

Objective dismissals and economic grounds

We also regularly handle objective dismissals based on statutory economic, organizational or production-related grounds under Spanish employment law.

The fact that a company is reporting losses does not automatically make every dismissal lawful.

The grounds must exist, be properly explained and be capable of proof.

We sometimes encounter dismissal letters that use accounting information in an excessively simplistic way. This is particularly relevant in recently established businesses, where significant initial investments, start-up expenses and negative early results may require proper interpretation before employment-law conclusions can be drawn.

A negative profit and loss account does not, by itself, replace the economic reasoning required to justify an employment termination.

Accordingly, certain objective dismissals also require an understanding of the underlying accounting: distinguishing expenses from investments, analyzing the evolution of revenues and determining whether there is a genuine connection between the company’s financial position and the elimination of the employee’s position.

Shift changes and substantial changes to working conditions

Many employment disputes do not begin with a dismissal.

They begin with a change in working hours.

A modification of working time, schedules, distribution of hours or shift arrangements can significantly affect an employee’s personal life.

Employers have organizational and management powers, but not every change can be imposed in any manner whatsoever.

Where the modification reaches a certain level of significance, the grounds, procedure and consequences must be examined.

In Madrid, we frequently handle cases involving shift changes, substantial schedule changes or reorganizations that affect work-life balance.

The time limits for challenging these measures can be particularly short, making it advisable to review the decision as soon as it is communicated.

Temporary joint ventures (UTEs), contractors, subcontractors and the end of projects or services

Madrid has a significant volume of activity carried out through contractors, subcontractors and temporary joint ventures, known in Spain as UTEs.

When a construction project, service contract or other assignment ends, it is not unusual for several employees to approach the firm together to review the communications they have received and determine whether their employment termination has been correctly structured.

In general terms, many of these situations are legally well organized.

Precisely for that reason, we consider it important to review the position before litigating. Not every termination needs to become a court case.

Problems arise where wages remain unpaid, there are doubts about which company is liable, contractors have changed repeatedly, seniority is disputed, or there is disagreement over whether an employee should have continued working for the new contractor.

Employee transfers and subrogation

The replacement of one company by another in the provision of a service does not automatically resolve what happens to the workforce.

Some employee transfers arise from a legal transfer of undertaking, others are required by collective bargaining agreements, and in some cases the dispute is precisely whether the legal requirements for subrogation have been met.

In these matters, we review the service contract, applicable collective bargaining agreement, activity transferred, assets and resources involved, and the actual position of the employees before determining which company should assume the corresponding employment obligations.

False self-employment and service agreements

False self-employment remains part of Madrid’s employment landscape.

It sometimes appears within apparently sophisticated structures: companies registered at prestigious business addresses, contracts described as service agreements, regular invoicing arrangements or payments originating from entities other than the company for which the individual actually works.

But the title of the contract does not determine the legal nature of the relationship.

What matters is how the work is actually performed.

Who sets the working hours. Who organizes the activity. Who determines the price. Whether the individual has a genuine business organization of their own. Whether they bear real economic risk. Whether they can provide services to third parties. Whether they are integrated into another company’s organization.

When we receive one of these purported commercial agreements, our first question is not what the contract is called.

It is what actually happened every morning when the supposed independent contractor started working.

When it is necessary to prove that someone actually worked there

Some employment cases begin with an apparently elementary difficulty: proving that the person worked at all.

There may be no written contract. Payments may be unclear. The company may dispute the duration of the relationship or even deny entire periods of employment.

In these situations, it is necessary to reconstruct the trail left by the work itself.

WhatsApp messages, photographs, videos, commercial posts, emails, instructions, schedules, conversations with coworkers, communications with customers and other forms of evidence may become fundamental.

Employment evidence is often found where nobody initially expected to have to look for it.

Challenging disciplinary sanctions

An apparently minor disciplinary sanction should not always be ignored.

Sanctions may later be used as disciplinary precedents to support more serious measures.

For this reason, we challenge sanctions when there are sufficient grounds to dispute the facts, proportionality or procedure followed.

The decision to challenge a sanction should take into account not only its immediate consequences but also the effect it may have on the future development of the employment relationship.

Pre-dismissal and internal disciplinary proceedings

Employment defense does not always have to begin after a dismissal has already taken place.

When an employer initiates an internal investigation or gives the employee an opportunity to respond, a properly prepared submission can be decisive.

Well-structured allegations allow the facts to be established, documents to be submitted, incorrect accusations to be challenged and the employer to understand from the outset that the situation is being reviewed legally.

We have acted in proceedings that ultimately did not result in dismissal.

In some situations, intervening before the decision is taken is considerably more effective than challenging it afterwards.

Recognition of employment rights

We also pursue claims whose immediate purpose is not financial compensation.

Disputes may arise over seniority, access to permanent positions, working conditions, professional classification or internal procedures for filling vacancies.

We have acted, for example, in disputes involving access to permanent positions in sectors such as transportation and cleaning services, where seniority or priority criteria were contested.

Where there is room for negotiation, a properly structured settlement can sometimes be considerably more useful than obtaining a judgment many months later.

Permanent disability and Social Security benefits

The labor courts also decide a substantial number of disputes involving Social Security benefits.

We act in cases where permanent disability or another benefit has initially been denied by the administrative authorities and must subsequently be challenged before the labor courts.

Medical documentation is essential in these cases, but accumulating reports is not enough.

The proven functional limitations must be connected to the actual requirements of the individual’s usual occupation, and the legal argument must explain why those limitations prevent or restrict the performance of that work.

We have obtained favorable outcomes in various disability cases following an initial administrative denial, although every case necessarily depends on its particular medical, professional and evidentiary circumstances.

SMAC Madrid and employment settlement proceedings

We place particular importance on settlement.

A significant number of employment disputes must first go through the Madrid Mediation, Arbitration and Conciliation Service, commonly known as SMAC.

In our experience, approximately three out of ten cases are resolved at that stage.

The fact that a case continues after SMAC does not necessarily mean that it will ultimately end with a judgment.

Settlement possibilities are frequently explored again during labor proceedings and, where a reasonable solution exists, we consider it appropriate to assess it carefully.

Defending a position firmly does not require systematically rejecting every settlement proposal.

Sometimes, knowing the case well is precisely what makes it possible to distinguish between an inadequate offer and one that avoids unnecessary litigation risk for the client.

Employment proceedings in Madrid

Madrid is a particularly fact-sensitive employment jurisdiction.

There can be differences in how evidentiary issues are assessed and in how individual courts conduct proceedings.

For this reason, we avoid presenting employment litigation as a mathematical exercise.

A proper defense must distinguish between what is legally possible, what can actually be proven and what can reasonably be expected from a particular case.

For the same reason, we consider it advisable to keep open the possibility of settlement whenever a reasonable solution exists.

Unnecessary procedural rigidity rarely benefits the client.

Employment appeals

An unfavorable first-instance judgment does not always bring the case to an end.

Where the legal requirements are met, we assess the possibility of filing a recurso de suplicación, the specific employment-law appeal available under Spanish procedure, before the Social Chamber of the High Court of Justice of Madrid.

A recurso de suplicación is not a complete retrial of the case.

It has its own technical structure and provides specific grounds for seeking revision of findings of fact or alleging legal error.

Its viability must therefore be assessed by examining the judgment, the evidence presented and the way in which the case was argued at first instance.

We also advise employers

EBAN Abogados is not a law firm exclusively dedicated to representing employees.

We also advise employers that need to make complex employment decisions, reorganize their workforce, implement objective dismissals, modify working conditions, handle collective employment procedures or respond to an inspection by the Spanish Labor Inspectorate.

Our approach begins with a simple idea: a properly structured business may encounter financial difficulties, make mistakes, need to reorganize or be forced to take difficult decisions.

A company may also have grown in a disorganized way and need to correct contracts, working-time arrangements, Social Security contributions or internal procedures.

Where there is a genuine intention to bring the employment structure into compliance and build a sustainable framework for the workforce, we can assist both in preventing disputes and in defending those that arise.

Effective employer-side representation often begins long before a dispute: properly structured contracts, reliable timekeeping systems, documented disciplinary procedures and decisions capable of being explained later before a court or an administrative authority.

Employment lawyers in Madrid

An employment dispute usually begins long before a conciliation claim is filed.

It may begin with a payroll statement that does not add up, working hours that are repeatedly extended, a shift change, an unexpected sanction, a conversation with Human Resources, medical leave, a supposedly commercial contract or a WhatsApp message.

At EBAN Abogados, we analyze the situation from that moment: what is happening, what documentation should be preserved and what strategy is appropriate.

Because in employment law, being right and being able to prove it are two different problems.