Jurisprudence study of employment contract for a specific job or service linked to contracts: legal development and critical analysis

Abstract

Contrary to the rumors that preceded it, the maintenance by 2012 Spanish Labor Reform of the traditional scheme for contracting in our system based on open-ended and fixed term contracts, entail the survival in this area of several controversial issues that the use of these figures generates. Among them is the subject of this study, which is referred to the legality of using contracts of employment for a specific job or service to execute contracts.

Trying to solve this dogmatic and theoretical issue with undeniable practical effect nowadays, we analyze in detail the successive judgments of our Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo) on this matter. They reveal an obsessive attempt by redirecting the contract of employment for specific job or service out beyond the strict legal boundaries designed by article 15.1 a) ET (Estatuto de los Trabajadores: main spanish labour law) and seem to overlook the thesis defended in this article which proclaims, in these cases, the use of open-ended contracts which includes clauses for termination, according to article 49.1 b) ET, whose effectiveness can be referenced to the end of the main contract.