Contract types in Spain, and which one you are being offered

Spanish employment contracts come in a handful of types, and which one you sign changes your protection, your income stability and what happens when the work ends. The 2021 labour reform reshaped this, so older advice online is often wrong.

INDEFINIDO — PERMANENT

No end date. This is now the default form and the reform was specifically designed to push employers towards it. Termination requires cause and, in most cases, statutory severance. A probation period applies at the start, during which either side can end it more easily — check its length in your contract, as it varies by role and convenio.

TEMPORAL — FIXED TERM

A contract with an end date, now only lawful for specific justified reasons: covering a named absent employee, or a genuine and temporary production circumstance. The reform substantially narrowed what qualifies and put limits on chaining them together. If you are offered a temporary contract, it should be clear which justification applies.

FIJO DISCONTINUO — PERMANENT SEASONAL

The important one for anyone working in tourism or agriculture. You are a permanent employee whose work is seasonal: you work the season, you are called back for the next one, and your seniority accrues across the whole period rather than resetting each year.

Compared with a plain temporary contract for the same season, this is materially better: recall rights, accumulated seniority, and a clearer legal position between seasons. If you intend to return to the same employer next year, ask specifically which of the two you are being offered.

FORMACIÓN AND PRÁCTICAS — TRAINING CONTRACTS

For recent graduates and people in vocational training, at reduced pay and with a training component that is supposed to be real. Time-limited and tied to the qualification. Useful as an entry route; watch that the training component actually exists.

AUTÓNOMO — SELF-EMPLOYED

Not an employment contract at all. You register as self-employed, invoice for your work, pay your own social security contribution monthly under an income-banded system, and file quarterly. No employer, no unemployment protection of the employed kind, no paid holiday, no severance.

There is a legitimate version of this and an illegitimate one. The illegitimate version — falso autónomo — is where you work set hours, at the employer's direction, using their equipment, essentially as an employee, but are billed as a contractor to avoid the employer's contributions. It is unlawful, it is not rare, and it can be challenged.

If an employer asks you to register as autónomo for what is plainly a job, that is the thing being described.

WHAT TO CHECK IN ANY OFFER

The contract type by name. The probation period and its length. The convenio that applies. Working hours, and whether the day is continuous or split (jornada partida — the long midday break, which lengthens your day considerably). Holiday entitlement, which is at least 30 calendar days by law. Notice periods on both sides.

Asking these questions before signing is normal and expected. Asking afterwards is considerably less useful.

General information, not legal advice. For a specific contract, a labour lawyer or a union will read it with you — unions in Spain advise members on exactly this.