Employee Contract Template for Spain

Who Is This Employee Contract Template For?

If you need to hire an employee in Spain, this employment contract template is built for HR managers, People Ops teams, founders, and legal counsel – whether you're a Spanish company onboarding locally or an international business expanding into the Spanish market.

Here's how it helps your team:

• Gives you a structured starting point built around the Estatuto de los Trabajadores, so you're not starting from a blank page.
• Flags where a sector-wide collective agreement applies. These often raise the legal minimums on pay, hours, and leave.
• Covers everything you're required to put in writing under EU transparency rules (Directive 2019/1152), now part of Spanish law.
• Includes guidance on probation periods, the 14-payment salary structure, and overtime rules specific to Spain.
• Helps you avoid the most common compliance mistakes: using a foreign template, omitting mandatory clauses, or including unenforceable restrictive covenants.

Free Spain Employee Contract Template

This template is built for the Spanish employment market and reflects the requirements of the Estatuto de los Trabajadores and the 2021 labour reforms, current as of 2026. It covers Spain-specific essentials, including collective agreement references, the 14-payment salary structure, and the rules around post-employment non-competes.

This template is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Playroll recommends consulting a qualified employment lawyer in Spain before using any contract template.

What's Included in This Spain Employment Contract Template?

The template includes every clause Spanish law requires for an employee contract in Spain, plus optional clauses calibrated to what's actually enforceable under local case law.

• Mandatory clauses required by the Workers' Statute: job title, salary, working hours, notice, leave, and place of work.
• Collective agreement field: with guidance on how to identify the agreement that covers your sector and how to cite it correctly.
• 14-payment salary structure: fields for the two extra payments (pagas extraordinarias) in July and December, or a pro-rated monthly equivalent if you prefer.
• Probation period clause: with the legal maximums by role type already filled in.
• Optional clauses: non-compete, confidentiality, IP assignment, remote work, and garden leave — each annotated with what's actually enforceable in Spain.

What Law Governs Employment Contracts in Spain?

Employment contracts in Spain are governed by the Estatuto de los Trabajadores (Workers' Statute), the 2021 labour reform, the Remote Work Act, and the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that applies to your sector. A valid employment agreement in Spain must comply with all four of these frameworks:

• The Workers' Statute (Estatuto de los Trabajadores): Spain's foundational employment law, covering contract types, working hours, leave, termination, and collective rights. Every employment contract in Spain must meet its standards as a baseline.
• The 2021 labour reform (Royal Decree-Law 32/2021): Reshaped how fixed-term contracts work from January 2022 onwards, and introduced a requirement to give employees written information on their key contract terms within their first week.
• The Remote Work Act (Ley 10/2021): If an employee works remotely for more than 30% of their time across any three-month period, you need a separate written remote work agreement (acuerdo de trabajo a distancia) on top of their main contract.
• Collective agreements (convenios colectivos): Sector-wide or company-level agreements that often raise the legal minimums on pay, leave, notice, and hours. Which one applies depends on your industry and the employee's role – once it applies, its terms are binding.

What Must Be Included in a Spanish Employment Contract?

Spanish law requires employers to give every new employee a written summary of their key employment terms within the first seven days of starting work. This is set out in the Workers' Statute (Article 8.5) and reflects EU rules on workplace transparency that Spain has adopted into national law.

The mandatory clauses include:

• Identity of the parties: Full legal name and registration details of the employer, and the employee's full name, ID, and social security number.
• Job title and professional category: Must match the applicable CBA. This affects pay scales, working hours, and notice obligations, so precision here matters.
• Place of work: The primary workplace, or a statement that the employee works in multiple locations.
• Start date and contract duration: For fixed-term contracts, the end date or the objective triggering termination.
• Base salary and pay structure: State gross salary in euros. Under ET Article 31, Spain pays 14 annual payments by default (12 monthly plus the July and December pagas extraordinarias), unless you agree to pro-rate across 12 months. State it clearly either way.
• Working hours: Standard weekly hours and schedule. The statutory maximum is 40 ordinary hours per week on an annual average.
• Annual leave entitlement: The statutory minimum is 30 calendar days per year, regardless of how many days a week the employee works. CBAs can increase this. Leave cannot be converted to cash except on termination.
• Notice period: Statutory minimum is 15 days for both employer and employee resignations under ET Article 49. CBAs often extend this.
• Applicable collective agreement: You must name the specific convenio colectivo that governs the role.

What Optional Clauses Should You Include in a Spain Employee Contract?

Optional clauses aren't legally required, but the right ones close gaps the statutory minimums leave open — especially around IP, confidentiality, and post-employment restrictions.

• Confidentiality: Holds up well in Spain when the scope is reasonable and the information is genuinely confidential. Worth including for almost any role.
• Non-compete (post-employment): Enforceable, but with strict conditions: a maximum of two years for technical specialists or six months for everyone else, a genuine business reason, and financial compensation paid during the restricted period. Skip the compensation and the whole clause falls away.
• Non-solicitation of clients and employees: Easier to enforce than a full non-compete, and often more practical. A good fit for senior, commercial, and client-facing hires.
• IP assignment: A clear written clause assigning work-created IP to the employer is the safest route. Carve out anything the employee already owned before joining.
• Remote work agreement: If someone works remotely more than 30% of the time, the Remote Work Act requires a separate written agreement covering equipment, expenses, working hours, and how their work is monitored.
• Garden leave: Not a built-in concept in Spanish law, but you can write it into the contract. Useful for senior roles with access to sensitive information.

What's the Difference Between Fixed-Term and Permanent Contracts in Spain?

Since the 2021 labour reform, permanent employment (contrato indefinido) is the default in Spain. Fixed-term contracts are only allowed in two situations: temporary spikes in workload (capped at six months, or up to 12 if your collective agreement extends it) or covering for an employee with a right to return, such as someone on parental leave.

A few things to watch:

• Use a fixed-term contract outside the two permitted situations, and it converts to permanent from day one.
• Use two or more production-circumstance contracts with the same employee within a 24-month window that together add up to more than 18 months – they also convert to permanent automatically.
• The penalties for misuse sit on the employer: back-payment of severance and possible fines from the Spanish Labour Inspectorate (Inspección de Trabajo y Seguridad Social).

What Are the Most Common Mistakes Employers Make With Spain Employment Contracts?

The five mistakes below account for the majority of contract disputes and Labour Inspectorate findings when companies hire an employee in Spain.

• Using a foreign or generic template: A UK or US contract will leave out clauses a job contract in Spain requires and is likely to get statutory entitlements wrong. Spanish courts apply Spanish law regardless of what the contract says.
• Misclassifying employees as freelancers (autónomos): Spain's tax and social security authorities actively audit for this. Getting it wrong means paying back missed contributions, plus potential fines.
• Setting a probation period that's too long: Anything beyond six months for technical roles or two months for other employees is unenforceable, unless the relevant collective agreement says otherwise.
• Forgetting to name the collective agreement: You're required to identify the applicable agreement in writing. Leave it out, and any ambiguous term in the contract gets read in the employee's favor.
• Adding a non-compete without paying for it: A post-employment non-compete only holds up if you pay the employee compensation for the restricted period.

Hire Employees in Spain with Confidence

As your Employer of Record, Playroll issues locally compliant contracts, runs payroll, and acts as the legal employer on the ground. We handle social security contributions, income tax withholding, and every statutory obligation in between. You stay focused on the work that grows your business.

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