Looking for a job nowadays can be a very frustrating situation where you have to be very patient. Due to the economic crisis and the pandemic, conditions are getting worse and worse, there are fewer and fewer job opportunities, and a permanent contract (link to Permanent contract: what is it and when to use it?) has become something that few people aspire to.

When a company needs to cover a post for a long period of time, it previously resorted to formalizing an “interim contract,” which is a temporary employment contract that had been used on two occasions:

– To cover the vacancy of a worker with the right to return to their post
– To fill a vacancy for a certain period of time

However, due to the new labour reform law effective as of March 31st, 2022, this type of contract has been replaced by the “temporary substitution contract.” This contract is regulated by the Royal Decree Law 32-2021.
In short, as of March 2022, it is no longer possible to formalize an interim contract with the aim of promoting permanent contracts and reducing temporary contracts. Next, we will analyse what would be the ”new interim contract”.

What is a temporary replacement contract?

The purpose of this type of contract is the same as the interim contract: to fill a vacancy.
It can be formalized in the following cases:
– Covering a vacancy of an employee with the right to return to work.
– To fill the reduced working hours of another employee, provided that it is for a legal reason or is covered by the collective agreement, alleging a justifiable reason for the substitution.
– To cover a post while the selection or promotion process of another person is being carried out by means of an indefinite contract. In this situation, the temporary replacement contract cannot be for a period of more than 3 months or the term established by the collective agreement, and it is not possible to repeat this process with the same objective.

The temporary replacement contract cannot be formalized for the purpose of covering holidays (link with Contract to replace holidays).

Full-time or part-time?

Article 5 of Royal Decree 2720-1998, Provisions on working hours, establishes that this type of contract must be for a full-time basis, except in the following cases:

– If the worker to be replaced was hired by the company on a part-time basis or the post to be occupied by the worker is going to be part-time in the future.

– If the contract is for the purpose of supplementing the worker’s reduced working hours or in the event that an agreement has been reached, thus temporarily reducing the working hours of the employee being replaced.

What is the duration of the contract?

The interim contract will last for the duration of the substituted worker’s absence. It will have a maximum period of 3 months, unless another period is indicated in the collective agreement or in the case of a public administration post, which will depend on what is regulated in the specific regulations.

For any queries, can contact our department.