Employment lawyers in Marbella.

01

If you are an employee

We explain your rights before you sign anything, including the final settlement (finiquito), and we defend your position at conciliation and, if needed, before the Social Court (Juzgado de lo Social).

• Disciplinary, objective and collective dismissals: review of the letter, the grounds given and the severance calculation.
• Claims for unpaid wages, overtime, bonuses and differences under the collective agreement. Amounts owed must be claimed within one year.
• Substantial changes to working hours, schedule, shifts or pay: the employer must give fifteen days’ notice and, if the change harms you, you may terminate the contract with twenty days’ pay per year of service, up to nine months.
• Workplace bullying, sexual or gender-based harassment and breaches of fundamental rights; termination of the contract for serious breaches by the employer, with the same compensation as an unfair dismissal.

02

Dismissal: deadlines that will not wait

The right to challenge a dismissal expires after twenty working days. Before filing a claim, conciliation is compulsory: in the province of Málaga the request is lodged with the Mediation, Arbitration and Conciliation Centre (CMAC) of the Andalusian regional government. Filing it suspends the deadline but does not restart it, so it is best done as early as possible.

If the dismissal is held to be unfair and the employer chooses to pay compensation, the law sets 33 days’ salary per year worked, capped at 24 months’ pay; for contracts signed before 12 February 2012, service before that date counts at 45 days per year. An objective dismissal carries 20 days per year, capped at 12 months’ pay, and fifteen days’ notice. What is signed at conciliation is directly enforceable, which is why we check every figure first.

03

If you are an employer

Hospitality, restaurants, tourism, retail and estate agencies on the Costa del Sol share the same challenge: staff numbers that rise in the season and fall afterwards. We help you choose the right contract, end each employment relationship properly and keep up to date what the Labour Inspectorate checks first.

• Hiring after the labour reform of Royal Decree-law 32/2021: open-ended contracts as the rule, seasonal permanent contracts (fijo discontinuo) for the season, and fixed-term contracts for production needs of up to six months (one year if the sector agreement extends it).
• Dismissals and disciplinary measures done properly: letter, grounds, paperwork and calculation, to reduce the risk of the dismissal being held unfair or void.
• Applicable collective agreement, pay scales, job classification and changes to working conditions.
• Daily working-time records, which must be kept for four years; measures against sexual and gender-based harassment, required of every company, and an equality plan from 50 employees.
• Labour Inspectorate: replies to information requests and written submissions against an infringement report, due within fifteen working days of notification.

04

Domestic staff in villas: household employment

Cleaners, cooks, gardeners, carers or caretakers hired by a family for its home are not employees of a business: they have a special employment relationship governed by Royal Decree 1620/2011. The employer is the head of the household, including a foreign owner who spends only part of the year here, and unemployment contributions have been compulsory since 1 October 2022.

Since Royal Decree-law 16/2022 the employer can no longer simply withdraw from the contract: it ends only for a reason notified in writing and, where it is one of the reasons specific to household employment, with compensation of 12 days per year, capped at six months’ pay. Royal Decree 893/2024 also requires the employer to assess occupational risks in the home.