The impact of ILO conventions related to salary, working time, health and safety and termination of the employment contract in Spanish law: critical issues

Abstract

This paper analyses the impact of some of the most important ILO conventions on pay, working time, safety and health and termination of the contract in the Spanish labour law. In general, the guarantees provided for in the ILO conventions and recommendations are respected by our Worker’s Statue (WS) and even improved in many aspects. Thus, regarding salaries, the rules limiting payment in kind or guaranteeing the worker’s freedom to dispose of his remuneration in the manner he deems appropriate, as well as a fair minimum wage system or measures to protect labour credits for preferential collection or through a guarantee institution are observed. Regarding working time, although the number of working hours in our WS is below that allowed by the ILO, other aspects can be improved, such as voluntary overtime and its compensation without mandatory surcharge. As regards the minimum weekly rest of twenty-four hours each seven-day period, fixed in the ILO conventions (and improved by the WS in half a day), it is worth reflecting on its difficulty of compliance in certain professional sectors (hostelry, trade), as the trade unions denounce. For the rest, our legal framework more than meets the requirements of the ILO in terms of safety and health, which is arguable that it can be ensured with equal determination in terms of job security, especially in the previous defence of an ordinary employee against the disciplinary dismissal.