Degree in Law - Collective Labour Law

Free translation of Royal Decree-Law 1/1995 of 24 March. Approves the

Consolidated Law establishing the Worker’s Code

HEADING II

On Workers’ Rights to Collective Representation and Meeting in the

Company

CHAPTER I. On the Right to Collective

Representation
Article 61. Participation.
In keeping with the provisions contained in Article 4 of
this Law, and without restriction to other forms of
participation, workers have the right to participate in the
company through the organs of representation
governed by this Heading.
Section 1. Organs of Representation
Article 62. Workers’ Delegates.
1. The representation of workers in companies or work
centres with less than fifty and more than ten workers
corresponds to workers’ delegates. There may likewise
be a workers' delegate in those companies or centres
with between six and ten workers, if these so decide by
majority.
The workers shall elect workers’ delegates by direct,
free, personal and secret election in the following
numbers: up to thirty workers, one; from thirty-one to
forty-nine workers, three.
2. Workers’ delegates shall jointly exercise the
representation to which they were elected with respect
to the employer and shall have the same competences
as those established for works councils.
Workers’ delegates shall observe the rules on
professional secrecy applicable to members of works
councils as established in Article 65 of this Law.
Article 63. Works Councils.
1. The works council is the professional representative
body of all the workers in the company or work centre,
established for the defence of their interests, and shall
be formed in every work centre with a census of fifty or
more workers.
2. Companies with two or more work centres in the
same province or in neighbouring municipalities, the
censuses of which do not individually come up to fifty
workers but jointly do, shall form a joint works council.
Where some centres may have fifty workers and others
from the same province do not, the former shall
constitute a works council of their own, and all the latter
shall form another.
3. The formation and operation of an Inter-centre
Council with a maximum of thirteen members
designated from among the components of the works
councils of the different centres may only be agreed by
collective bargaining.
In forming the inter-centre council, the proportional
representation of unions shall be maintained in
accordance with overall electoral results.
Such inter-centre councils may not attribute themselves
functions other than those expressly granted to them by
the collective agreement containing their creation.
Article 64. Rights to Information and Consultation and
Competences.
1. The works council shall have the right to be informed
and consulted by the employer concerning those
questions which might affect the workers, as well as
concerning the situation of the company and the
evolution of employment within the company, according
to the provisions of this article.
By information is meant the transmission of data by the
employer to the works council, so as to allow the latter
to have knowledge of a certain matter and to proceed to
its examination. By consultation is meant the exchange
of opinions and the opening of a dialogue between the
employer and the works council concerning a certain
matter, including, if necessary, the drafting by the latter
of a preliminary report.
In defining or applying procedures of information and
consultation, the employer and the works council shall
act within a spirit of cooperation, in accordance with
their reciprocal rights and obligations, taking into
account the interests of the company as well as those of
the workers.
2. The works council shall have the right to be informed
every quarter:
a) About the general evolution of the
economic sector to which the company
belongs.
b) About the economic situation of the
company and the recent and possible
evolution of its activities, including those
for the protection of the environment
which might have an direct impact on
employment, as well as about
production and sales, including the
production program.
c) About the employer’s previsions
regarding the signing of new contracts,
indicating the number of these and the
modalities and types of contract to be
used, including part-time contracts, the
performance of additional hours by
part-time workers, and the cases of
subcontracting.
d) About the statistics concerning absence
rates and their cause, industrial
accidents and professional illnesses and
their consequences, occupational hazard
rates, periodic or special studies on the
working environment and hte
prevention mechanisms in use.
3. It shall also have the right to be informed at least once
a year regarding the application of the right to equal
treatment and opportunities between men and women
in the company, which shall include data on the
proportion of men and women on the different
occupational levels, along with information, as the case
warrants, on measures that may have been adopted to
promote equality between men and women in the
company, and, if an equality plan has been projected, on
the application thereof.
4. The works council shall have the right, with the
applicable periodicity:
a) To know the balance, profit and loss
accounts, management report and – should
the company take the form of a stock or
share company – the other documents
made available to the shareholders, under
the same conditions as these.
b) To know the models of written
employment contracts in use in the
company as well as the documents related
to the termination of the employment
relations.
c) To be informed about all the sanctions
imposed in case of very serious offences.
The works council shall also have the right to receive the
basic copy of the contracts and the notification of their
extensions and terminations within a term of ten days
following the date on which these take place.
5. The works council shall have the right to be informed
and consulted about the situation and the structure of
employment in the company or the work centre, as well
as to be informed quarterly about its likely evolution,
including consultation when changes related to it are
foreseen.
It will also have the right to be informed and consulted
about all the decisions of the company which might
provoke relevant changes concerning the organization of
work and the employment contracts in the company. It
will likewise have the right to be informed and consulted
about the adoption of possible preventive measures,
especially when employment is at risk.
The works council shall have the right to issue a report,
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prior to the enforcement by the employer of the
decision s/he adopts on the following matters:
a) Work force restructuring and total or partial,
permanent or temporary cessations within
it.
b) Reductions in working time
c) Total or partial transfer of installations
d) Process of merger, absorption or
modification of the company’s legal status
which involve any effect liable to affect the
volume of employment.
e) Professional training plans within the
company.
f) The implantation or revision of
organizational and work control systems,
time studies, creation of systems of bonuses
and incentives and assessment of work
positions
6. The information shall have to be communicated by
the employer to the works council, without prejudice to
what is specifically provided in each case, at a time, in a
way and with a content which are appropriate, which
allow the workers’ representatives to proceed to its
adequate assessment and prepare, if applicable, the
consultation and the report.
Except explicitly provided otherwise, consultation shall
have to be fulfilled at an appropriated time and in an
appropriated way, at the corresponding level of
management and representation of the company, and in
such a way that allows the workers’ representatives, on
the basis of the received information, to have a meeting
with the employer, to receive a motivated answer to
their report, to contrast their point of views or opinions
with the purpose, if applicable, of being able to come to
an agreement on the matters detailed in point 4,
without prejudice to the rights related thereto
recognized to the employer in relation with each of
those matters. In any case, the consultation shall have to
allow that the position of the council could be known by
the employer when the latter adopts or enforces its
decision.
The reports that the works council has to issue shall
have to be drawn up within a maximum period of 15
days starting from the moment the corresponding
information has been requested and communicated.
7. The works council shall also have the following
competences:
a) To exercise the tasks of:
1º Vigilance in the fulfilment of the labour,
Social Security and employment regulations in
force, as well as all other standing pacts,
conditions and practices of the company,
formulating, as the case warrants, the
appropriate legal action with respect to the
employer and the competent agencies or Courts.
2º Vigilance and control over the safety and
hygiene conditions in the company’s work
procedures, with the specific emphases
provided for in this regard by Article 19 of this
Law.
3º Vigilance over the respect and application of
the principles of equal treatment and equal
opportunities between men and women.
b) To participate in the management of the
social works established in the company for the
benefit of the workers or their family members,
as set forth by collective bargaining agreement.
c) To collaborate with the company
management towards the establishment of
whatever measures may procure the
maintenance and increase of productivity, as
well as the environmental sustainability of the
company, if likewise agreed upon in collective
bargaining agreements.
d) To collaborate with the company
management in the establishment and launching
of work-life balance measures.
d) To inform its constituents on all the subjects
and questions set forth in this Article in what
directly or indirectly may affect labour relations.
8. The provisions of this Article shall not affect specific
provisions set forth in other Articles of this Law or in
other legal or executive regulations.
9. Within the limits of the respect of the laws and
regulations, specific provisions related to the content
and the modalities of the exercise of the rights of
information and consultation set forth in this Article, as
well as the most adequate level of representation for
their exercise can be established in collective bargaining
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agreements.
Article 65. Legal Capacity and Confidentiality.
1. The capacity to exercise administrative or legal
actions by majority decision of its members in
everything involving the scope of its competences is
recognized to the works council, as a collegiate
body.
2. The members of the works council, and the council
as a whole, as well as the experts who might assist
them, shall observe professional secrecy with
regards to the information which will have be
communicated explicitly with reserved character in
the legitimate and objective interest of the
company.
3. In any case, no type of document given by the
company to the council may be used outside the
strict scope of the former for purposes other than
those that motivated their communication
4. The company will exceptionally not be obliged to
communicate the specific information related to
industrial, financial or commercial secrets the
disclosure of which could, according to objective
criteria, hamper the functioning of the company or
the work centre or provoke serious damage to its
economic stability.
This exception does not apply to the data related to
the volume of employment in the company.
5. The challenge to the decision of the company to
attribute a reserved character or not to communicate
information to the workers representatives shall be
processed in accordance with the procedure for
collective conflicts regulated in Chapter VIII of Title II of
Book II of the Employment Tribunals Procedure Act,
Consolidated Text approved by Royal Decree 2/1995 of 7
April.
Likewise, the conflicts related to the respect of their
obligation of confidentiality by the workers
representatives and the experts who assist them shall be
processed according to the same provisions.
The provisions of this point shall not affect the provision
of the Consolidated Text of the Law on Offences and
Sanctions within the Social Order, approved by Royal
Decree 5/2000 of 4 August, in case of ungrounded
refusal of the information which the workers’
representative have a right to obtain.
Article 66. Composition.
1. The number of members making up the works council
shall be determined in accordance with the following
scale:
a) From fifty to one hundred workers, five.
b) From one hundred and one to two hundred and fifty
workers, nine.
c) From two hundred and fifty-one to five hundred
workers, thirteen.
d) From five hundred and one to seven hundred and fifty
workers, seventeen.
e) From seven hundred and fifty-one to one thousand
workers, twenty-one.
f) From one thousand workers onward, two for every
thousand or fraction thereof, to the maximum of
seventy-five.
2. The works councils or work centre shall elect a
chairman and a committee secretary from among its
members and shall draw up their own rules on
procedure, which may not contravene the law, providing
copy thereof to the labour authorities for registration
purposes, and to the company.
The councils shall meet every two months, or whenever
one-third of their members or one-third of the workers
they represents so request.
Article 67. Promotion of Elections and Electoral
Mandate.
1. The most representative unions, those having at least
ten percent among the representatives in the company,
or the workers of the work centre by majority
agreement, may promote elections for workers’
delegates and members of the works council. Unions
with the right to promote elections shall have right of
access to the registers of the Public Administration
containing data on the registration of companies and the
enlistment of workers, to the extent necessary to carry
out the promotion in their respective areas.
The promoters shall notify the company and the public
office depending from the labour authority of their
proposal to hold elections with a minimum advance
notice of at least one month prior to the start of the
electoral process. In the said notification, the
proponents must exactly identify the company and the
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work centre in which the electoral process is intended to
be held, as well as the date it is to start, which shall be
that of the constitution of the Voting Committee, and
which, in any case, cannot begin before one month or
after three months counted from the registration of the
notice in the public office depending from the labour
authority. Within the following working day, this public
office shall display the prior notifications presented on
its bulletin board, furnishing copy thereof to the unions
that may request it.
Only subject to majority agreement between the most
representative unions or the unions considered
representative in accordance with Organic Law 11/1985
of 2 August, on Freedom of Association, may the holding
of general elections in one or several functional areas or
territories be promoted. Said agreements must be
communicated to the public office depending from the
labour authority for their deposit and publication.
Where elections are promoted to renew representation
owing to the end of a mandate, such promotion may
only be initiated from the date three months prior to the
expiry of such mandate.
Partial elections may be promoted due to resignations,
revocations or adjustments in representation due to an
increased work force. Collective bargaining agreements
may establish provisions concerning the need to
accommodate workers’ representation to any significant
decreases in work force that may take place in the
company. By default, the said accommodation may be
carried out by virtue of an agreement between the
company and the workers' representatives.
2. The breach of any of the requirements set forth in this
article for the promotion of elections shall invalidate the
electoral process in question; this notwithstanding, the
omission of notification to the company may be
substituted by a copy of the notification presented to
the public office depending from the labour authority,
provided that this is done at least twenty days before
the starting date of the electoral process set forth in the
written proposal.
The waiver of the promotion after the notification of the
promotion to the public office depending from the
labour authority shall not impede the electoral process
from taking place, provided that all the requirements for
its validity are complied with.
In the event of coincidence of various promoters of
elections in a company or work centre, the first call to be
registered shall be considered valid for the purposes of
initiating the electoral process, except in those cases in
which the union majority in the company or work centre
with a works council has presented a different date, in
which case this latter shall prevail, provided that such
calls comply with the requirements established. In this
latter case, the promotion must be accompanied by a
certified communiqué on the said promotion of
elections sent to those who may have coursed another
or other previous petitions.
3. The duration of the mandate for workers’ delegates
and works council members shall be four years, with the
understanding that they shall remain in office exercising
their competences and guarantees until new elections
have been advocated and held.
Workers’ delegates and works council members may
only be revoked during their mandate by the decision of
the workers who elected them, through a meeting called
to that purpose, on request of at least one-third of their
voters, and by the absolute majority of these, through
direct free personal secret suffrage. This
notwithstanding, such revocation cannot be carried out
during collective bargaining proceedings, nor may it be
reformulated until after at least six months.
4. Should a vacancy in the works council of the company
or the work centre come to exist for any reason, it shall
automatically be filled by the next worker on the list to
which the substituted member belongs. Where the
vacancy refers to workers’ delegates, it shall
automatically be filled by the worker who, in the
election, obtained the number of votes immediately
following the last person elected. The substitute shall
hold office for the remaining time of the mandate.
5. Notice of substitutions, revocations, resignations and
extinctions of mandate shall be sent to the public office
depending from the labour authority, to the employer,
and also published on the bulletin board.
Article 68. Guarantees.
Except for what is provided for in the collective
bargaining agreements, works council members and
workers’ delegates, as the legal representatives of the
workers, shall have the following guarantees:
a) Opening of an inter partes case in the event of
sanctions for serious or very serious offences, where,
apart from the interested parties, the works council or
other workers’ delegates shall be heard.
b) Priority of permanence in the company or work
centre with respect to the other workers in cases of
suspension or extinction for technological or economic
reasons.
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c) Not being dismissed or sanctioned during the exercise
of his/her functions or during the year following the
expiry of his/her mandate, unless the latter is caused by
revocation or resignation, provided that the dismissal or
sanction is based on the acts of the worker in the
exercise of his/her mandate of representation, and thus,
without prejudice to what is set forth in Article 54.
Likewise, s/he may not be discriminated in his/her
economic or professional promotion precisely by reason
of the exercise of such representation.
d) Freely expressing – jointly, if the committee is
concerned – his/her opinions on matters concerning the
sphere of his/her representation, having the right to
publish and distribute publications of labour or social
interest without disrupting the normal progress of work,
communicating this to the company.
e) Each committee member or workers’ delegate shall
avail of a credit of paid monthly hours for the exercise of
their representative functions, in accordance with the
following scale: workers’ delegates or works council
members:
1. Up to one hundred workers, fifteen hours.
2. From one hundred and one to two hundred and
fifty workers, twenty hours.
3. From two hundred and fifty-one to five hundred
workers, thirty hours.
4. From five hundred and one to seven hundred and
fifty workers, thirty-five hours.
5. From seven hundred and fifty-one workers onward,
forty hours.
The accumulation of hours on the part of the different
works council members and, if applicable, of the
workers’ delegates, by one or several members, may be
negotiated in collective bargaining, by which these may
be relieved from work, without prejudice to their salary.
Section 2. Electoral Procedures
Article 69. Elections.
1. Workers’ delegates and works council members shall
be elected by all the workers through direct, free,
personal and secret suffrage, which may be cast by post
in the manner established by the provisions
implementing this Law.
2. All the workers of the company or work centre older
than sixteen years of age and having a seniority of at
least one month in the company shall be voters, and
workers aged eighteen with a seniority in the company
of at least six months shall be eligible for office, except
in those activities where, due to personnel mobility, a
shorter period is agreed on in a collective bargaining
agreement, to the minimum limit of three months of
seniority.
Foreign workers may be voters and eligible for office
where they meet the conditions referred to in the
preceding paragraph.
3. The legally constituted labour unions or coalitions
composed of two or more of these, which must have a
specific denomination to which the results of the
coalition shall be attributed, may present candidates for
the elections of workers’ delegates and works council
members. Workers which have their candidacy backed
with a number of signatures from voters of their same
centre and professional group, as applicable, equivalent
to at least three times the number of posts to be
covered, may likewise be candidates.
Article 70. Vote for Delegates.
When electing workers’ delegates, each voter may give
his vote to a maximum number of candidates from
among those proclaimed equivalent to the number of
candidate posts to be covered. Those obtaining the
greatest number of votes shall be elected. In the event
of a tie, the more senior worker in the company shall be
elected.
Article 71. Election of the Works Council.
1. In companies composed of more than fifty workers,
the census of voters and eligible candidates shall be
distributed between two professional groups, one
composed of technicians and administrative staff and
another composed of the specialized and non-qualified
workers. By collective bargaining agreement, and
depending on the professional composition of the sector
of productive activity or of the company, a new
professional group adapted to the latter composition
may be established. In such a case, the electoral
regulations of the present Heading shall be adapted to
the corresponding number of professional groups. The
posts on the committee shall be proportionally
distributed in each company in accordance with the
number of workers forming the professional electoral
groups mentioned. Should the division result in
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fractioned quotients, the fractioned unit shall be
awarded to the group obtaining the higher fraction, and
if these are equal, the awarding shall be done by lots.
2. As regards works council members, elections shall
adjust to the following rules:
a) Each voter can give his vote to a single one among the
lists presented for committee members corresponding
to his professional group. These lists shall contain at
least as many names as there are posts to be covered.
This notwithstanding, the waiver of any candidate
presented in some of the election lists before the date of
the elections shall not imply the suspension of the
electoral process nor the annulment of the said
candidacy, even though it is incomplete, provided that
the affected list reflects a number of candidates
equivalent to at least sixty percent of the posts to be
covered. Each list shall reflect the acronym of the union
or group of workers presenting it.
b) Those lists that have not obtained a minimum of 5
percent of the votes for each professional group shall
not have a right to the allocation of representatives in
the works council.
Each list shall be attributed the number of posts that
correspond to it through the system of proportional
representation, according to the quotient resulting from
dividing the number of valid votes by the number of
posts to be covered. Should there be an excess post or
posts, these shall be allocated to the list or lists having a
greater remainder of votes.
c) The candidates within each list shall be elected in
accordance with the order in which they appear in the
candidacy.
3. In the event of failure to observe any one of the
aforementioned rules, the election of the affected
candidate/s may be subject to annulment.
Article 72. Representatives of Workers rendering
Services in Fixed-discontinuous Jobs and
Non-permanent Workers.
1. Those rendering services in fixed-discontinuous jobs
and workers bound by fixed-term contracts shall be
represented by the organs established under this
Heading together with the permanent workers on the
work force.
2. Thus, for the purpose of determining number of
representatives, the following shall be considered:
a) Those rendering services in fixed-discontinuous jobs
and workers bound by fixed-term contracts in excess of
one year shall count as permanent workers.
b) Workers contracted for a term of up to one year shall
be computed in accordance with the number of days
worked during the one-year period before the elections
were called. Every two hundred days worked or fraction
thereof shall be computed as one worker.
Article 73. Voting Committees.
1. A Voting Committee for every professional group of
250 voting workers or fraction thereof shall be set up in
the company or work centre.
2. The Voting Committee supervisors shall take charge of
watching over the entire electoral process, presiding
over the balloting, scrutinizing the ballots, drawing up
the pertinent certificate and resolving any complaints
that arise.
3. The Voting Committee shall be composed of its
chairman, who shall be the most senior worker in the
company, and two members, who shall be the oldest
and youngest voter. The latter shall act as secretary.
Substitutes shall be designated for those workers, who
shall succeed the members of the station in the order
indicated according to seniority or age.
None of the members of the station may be a
candidate. If this is the case, s/he shall be replaced by
his/her substitute.
Each candidate or candidacy, as applicable, may
appoint one inspector per station. Likewise, the
employer may appoint one employer’s representative to
watch over the voting and the scrutiny.
Article 74. Functions of the Committee.
1. Once notice of the intention to hold elections is given
to the company, within a period of seven days, it shall
inform the workers who have to constitute the station as
well as the workers’ representatives, simultaneously
notifying the promoters of the election.
The Voting Committee shall be formally constituted by
way of the minutes drawn up to that purpose on the
date set by the promoters in the notification of their
intention to hold elections, which shall be the start date
of the electoral process.
2. For the elections of workers’ delegates, the employer,
within the same period, shall send the workforce census
to the members of the Voting Committee which, for
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these purposes, shall be presented on a standard form.
The Voting Committee shall fulfil the following functions:
a) It shall publish the work force census among the
workers, indicating who the voters are.
b) It shall determine number of representative s and the
deadline for the presentation of candidacies.
c) It shall receive and proclaim the candidacies
presented.
d) It shall indicate the election date.
e) It shall draw up the certificate of scrutiny within a
period not to exceed three calendar days.
The timelines for each phase shall be set forth by the
Voting Committee according to reasonable criteria, as
circumstances allow; however, in any case, there shall
be no more than ten days between its constitution and
the date of the elections.
In the case of elections in work centres composed of up
to thirty workers in which a single workers’ delegate is
elected, twenty-four hours must elapse between the
constitution of the station and the acts of voting and
proclaiming the candidates-elect, whereby in any case
the station must publicly announce the time of the
elections with sufficient time in advance. Should any
complaint be filed, this shall be reflected in the
certificate, along with the resolution taken by the
station.
3. Where elections for works council members are
involved, once the Voting Committee is formed, the
employer shall be asked for the workforce census and
the station shall draw up the list of voters with the
means that the employer shall have to provide. The list
of voters shall be made public on the bulletin boards,
where it shall be exhibited for a period of not less than
seventy-two hours.
The Voting Committee shall resolve any incident or
complaint presented regarding inclusions, exclusions or
corrections up to twenty-four hours after the end of the
exhibition of the list. It shall publish the final list within
the following twenty-four hours. Thereafter, the station
or group of stations shall determine the number of
committee members to be elected, applying the
provisions contained in Article 66.
Candidacies shall be presented during the nine days
following the publication of the final list of voters. The
proclamation shall be made within the two working days
following the end of the said timeline, and published on
the bulletin boards referred to.
Complaints against the resolution of proclamation may
be raised in the course of the following working day,
with the station resolving the case on the following
working day.
There shall be at least five days between the
proclamation of candidates and the elections.
Article 75. Election of Delegates and Works councils.
1. The election shall be held in the work centre or work
place during the working day, taking into account the
rules governing voting by post. The employer shall
provide the means necessary for the normal conduct of
elections and of the entire electoral process.
2. The vote shall be free, secret, personal and direct,
with ballots of equal characteristics, size, colour, printing
and paper quality deposited in sealed boxes.
3. Immediately after the voting has been held, the
Voting Committee shall publicly proceed to the counting
of votes, with the Chairman reading the ballots aloud.
4. A certificate of the results of the scrutiny shall be
drawn up in accordance with a standard form, where
incidents and protests produced shall be reflected, if
applicable. Once the certificate has been drawn up, it
shall be signed by the members of the station, the
inspectors, and the employer’s representative, if there is
any. Immediately afterwards, the Voting Committees of
one and the same company or centre shall issue the
certificate of the overall election results in a joint
session.
5. The chairman of the station shall send copies of the
certificate of scrutiny to the employer and to the
candidates’ inspectors as well as to the
representatives-elect.
The election results shall be published on the bulletin
boards.
6. The original copy of the certificate, along with the
annulled votes, the ballots challenged by the inspectors,
and the minutes of constitution of the station, shall be
presented to the public office depending from the
labour authority within an interval of three days by the
Chairman of the station, who may delegate this task in
writing to another member thereof. The public office
depending from the labour authority, on the first
following working day, shall proceed to publish a copy of
the certificate on the bulletin boards, furnishing copy
thereof to the unions which so request it, and shall
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inform the company of the presentation of the
certificate corresponding to the electoral process that
has taken place in the company to the said public office,
indicating therein the date of the deadline to challenge
it, keeping the ballots in deposit until the deadlines for
challenges elapse. Ten working days after the
publication, the public office depending from the labour
authority shall proceed or not to register the electoral
certificates.
7. It falls upon the public office depending from the
labour authority to register the certificates as well as to
issue true copies thereof and, upon the petition of the
union concerned, copies of the certificates accrediting
its representative capacity for the purposes of Articles 6
and 7 of Organic Law 11/1985 of 2 August, on Freedom
of Association. The said certificates shall reflect whether
or not the union holds the status of most representative
or representative union, unless the exercise of the
pertinent functions or authority requires the
specification of the particular representative power.
Likewise, the public office depending from the labour
authority may issue certificates of the election results to
the unions that request them for the pertinent
purposes.
The public office depending from the labour authority
may only refuse to register certificates when the
certificates are not issued on the standardized official
form, in case of absence of notification of the promotion
of elections to the public office or of the signature of the
Voting Committee Chairman, or in case of omission or
illegibility of any data in the certificates impeding
electoral calculations.
In these cases, the public office depending from the
labour authority, within the following working day, shall
require the Voting Committee Chairman to proceed to
the pertinent remedy within ten working days. Notice of
the said requirement shall be given to the unions that
have obtained representation and to the rest of the
candidacies. Once remedy is made, this public office
shall proceed to register the electoral certificate
concerned. Should the said interval transpire without
remedy having been made, or should this not be made
in due form, the public office depending from the labour
authority shall proceed, within an interval of ten working
days, to refuse registration, notifying the unions that ma
y have obtained representation and the station
chairman thereof. Should the refusal of registration be
due to the absence of notification to the public office
depending from the labour authority of the promotion
of elections, no requirement to remedy shall be
proceeding, such that once the defect is verified by the
said public office, it shall immediately proceed to refuse
registration, and notifying its refusal to the Voting
Committee Chairman, the unions that may have
obtained representation and the rest of the candidacies.
The resolution refusing registration may be challenged
before the labour courts.
Article 76. Complaints on Electoral Matters.
1. Challenges on electoral matters shall be processed in
accordance with the arbitration proceedings regulated
by this article, except for refusals of registration,
complaints which may be directly formulated before the
competent jurisdiction.
2. All those having legitimate interest, including the
company when it may also have such interest, may,
throughout the electoral process, challenge the
elections, the decisions adopted by the Voting
Committee and any other action thereof, having to base
their charges for on the existence of serious defects that
may affect the guarantees of the electoral process and
alter its results, on the lack of capacity or legitimation of
the candidates elected, discrepancy between the
certificate and the reality of the electoral process and on
the lack of correlation between the number of workers
figuring in the election certificate and the number of
elected representatives. Challenges to the acts of the
Voting Committees shall require the filing of a complaint
during the working day following the act, and must be
resolved by the Voting Committee on the next working
day, except for what is set forth in the last paragraph of
Article 74.2 of this Law.
3. The arbitrators shall be those designated in
accordance with the procedures regulated in this
section, except if the parties to the arbitration
proceedings agree on the designation of another
arbitrator.
The arbitrator or arbitrators shall be appointed from
amongst Law graduates, Labour Relations graduates or
equivalent degree-holders, in accordance with the
principles of neutrality and professionalism, by the
unanimous agreement of the most representative
unions on the national or regional levels, as proceeding,
and those having ten percent or more of the delegates
and works council members in the pertinent provincial,
functional or company area. Should there be no
unanimous agreement among the unions previously set
forth, the competent labour authorities shall establish
the manner of appointment, bearing in mind the
principles of impartiality of the arbitrators, the
possibility of their being challenged, and the
participation of the unions in their appointment.
The duration of the mandate of arbitrators shall be five
9
years, subject to renovation.
The Labour Administration shall facilitate the use of its
human and material resources by the arbitrators, to the
extent necessary for them to perform their functions.
4. Arbitrators shall abstain in the following cases, being
subject to challenge should they fail to do so:
a) Holding personal interests in the case concerned.
b) Being the administrator of an interested company or
entity, or having a dispute with any of the parties.
c) Being a blood relative to the fourth degree or being
related by marriage to the second with respect to any of
the interested parties, the administrators of interested
entities or companies and the consultants, legal
representatives or attorneys intervening in the
arbitration, as well as sharing a professional office or
being associated to these for consultancy, for
representation or as an attorney.
d) Having an intimate friendship or manifest enmity with
any of the persons mentioned in the preceding section.
e) Having a relation of service provision to a physical or
legal person directly interested in the case, or having
rendered professional services of any kind in any
circumstances or place during the last two years.
5. The arbitration proceedings shall begin by means of a
writ addressed to the public office depending from the
labour authority where elections were promoted and, as
applicable, to whoever may have presented candidates
to the elections being challenged. This instrument,
which shall reflect the facts being challenged, shall be
presented within a period of three working days counted
from the day after that on which the facts occurred or
the complaint was resolved by the Voting Committee. In
the case of challenge initiated by unions who have not
presented candidacies in the work centre where the
election was held, the three days shall be computed
from the day on which the item subject to challenge
becomes known. If acts occurring on the day of the
election or afterwards are challenged, the interval shall
be ten working days counted from the admission of the
certificates into the public office depending from the
labour authority.
Until the end of the arbitration proceedings and, as
applicable, the subsequent challenge before the Courts,
the processing of any new arbitration proceedings shall
be paralyzed. The proposal of arbitration shall interrupt
prescription.
6. The public office depending from the labour authority
shall send the writ to the arbitrator on the working day
following its receipt, along with a copy of the
administrative electoral file. If any electoral certificates
were presented for registration, their processing shall be
suspended.
Twenty-four hours afterwards, the arbitrator shall call
the interested parties to appear before him/her, which
shall take place during the next three working days.
Should the parties come to an agreement prior to
appearing before the arbitrator appointed as set forth in
section three of this article, designating a different
arbitrator, they shall notify the public office depending
from the labour authority thereof so that it may convey
the administrative electoral case to this arbitrator,
continuing the rest of the procedures with him.
Within the three working days after the proceedings and
subject to the previous investigation of the admissible
evidence in accordance with law, which may include a
visit to the work centre and a request for the needed
collaboration of the employer and the Public
Administration, the arbitrator shall pronounce his/her
award. The award shall be in writing and motivated, and
shall rule by law on the challenge to the electoral
process and, as applicable, the registration of the
certificate, and notice thereof shall be given to the
interested parties and to the public office depending
from the labour authority. If the voting has been
challenged, the office shall proceed to register or refuse
to register the certificate, in accordance with the
contents of the award.
The arbitration award may be challenged before the
Labour Courts through the pertinent procedural
modality.
CHAPTER II On the Right to Assembly
Article 77. Workers’ Assemblies.
1. In compliance with what is set forth in Article 4 of this
Law, the workers of one and the same company or work
centre have the right to meet in assembly.
The assembly may be called by the workers’ delegates,
the works council, or by a number of workers not less
10
than 33 percent of the work force. The assembly shall be
d) Legal closure of the company.
jointly chaired, in any event, by the works council or by
the workers’ delegates, who shall be responsible for the
Meetings to inform about collective bargaining
normal progress thereof, as well as for the presence of
persons not belonging to the company in the assembly. agreements applicable shall not be affected by
It may only deal with matters that have been previously
paragraph b).
included in the agenda. The chairmanship shall inform
the employer of the call and the names of the persons
Article 79. Assembly Call
not belonging to the company who are going to attend
the meeting, and shall agree with it on the appropriate
The assembly call, setting forth the agenda proposed by
measures to prevent harm to the normal activity of the
the proponents, shall be sent to the employer at least
company.
forty-eight hours in advance, whereby receipt thereof
must be confirmed.
2. If, owing to work in shifts, insufficiency of the
premises or any other circumstance, the entire work
Article 80. Voting.
force cannot meet simultaneously without damaging or
altering the normal progress of production, the various
Where the adoption of resolutions affecting the entire
partial meetings that it may be necessary to hold shall
group of workers is submitted to the assembly by the
be considered as a single meeting and bear the date of
proponents, the personal, free, direct and secret
the first meeting.
favourable vote of half plus one of all the workers in the
company or work centre, including votes sent by post,
Article 78. Meeting place.
shall be required for their validity.
1. The meeting place shall be the work centre, if its
conditions so allow, and the meeting shall take place
Article 81. Premises and Bulletin Board.
outside of working hours, unless otherwise agreed with
the employer.
Appropriate premises where workers’ delegates or the
2. The employer shall put the work centre at disposal for
the holding of the meeting, except in the following works council can conduct their activities and
cases: communicate with the workers shall be put at their
disposal, along with one or more bulletin boards, in
a) If the provisions of this Law are not fulfilled. companies or work centres, providing that their
characteristics so permit. The legal representatives of
b) If less than two months have elapsed since the last the workers of contracting and subcontracting
meeting. companies continuously sharing a common work centre
may make use of the said premises under the terms that
c) If damages produced in incidents that have occurred they agree on with the company. Possible discrepancies
shall be resolved by the labour authorities, subject to
in some previous meeting are still outstanding or the prior report of Work Inspection.
compensation for them has still not been guaranteed.

11
 HEADING III
On Collective Bargaining and Collective Bargaining Agreements
CHAPTER I General Provisions
Section 1. Nature and Effects of the Agreements
Article 82. Concept and Effectiveness.
1. Collective bargaining agreements, as the result of the
negotiations undertaken by representatives of works
and employers, embody the expression of the
agreement freely adopted by these by virtue of their
collective autonomy.
2. Through collective bargaining agreements, and in
their corresponding scopes, workers and employers
regulate their working and productivity conditions.
Likewise, they may regulate social peace through the
obligations agreed upon.
3. The collective bargaining agreements regulated by
this Law are binding upon all employers and workers
included within their scope of application, throughout
the entire time of their validity.
Without prejudice to the above, where economic,
technical, organizational or production grounds exist, by
agreement between the company and the
representatives of the workers having legitimation to
negotiate a collective agreement pursuant to Article
87.1, the working conditions provided in the applicable
collective agreement, whether being a sector or
company agreement, and affecting the following topics,
can be suspended, pending the realization of a period of
consultation pursuant to Article 41.4:
a) working time
b) schedule and distribution of working time
c) shift work regime
d) remuneration system and amount
e) working system and performance
f) functions, when they exceed the limits provided by
Article 39 to functional mobility
g) voluntary improvement to protective action by Social
Security
Economic grounds are understood to exist when a
negative economic situation can be deduced from
the results of the company, in cases like the existence of
current or foreseen losses, or a persistent decrease of its
normal sales or income. In any case, the decrease will be
considered as persistent if during two consecutive
trimesters the level of normal income or sales of each
trimester is inferior to the level registered in the same
trimester of the previous year.
Technical grounds are understood to exist when changes
apply, amongst others, in the sphere of the means or
instruments of production; organizational grounds when
changes apply, amongst others, in the sphere of the
systems and methods of work or to the way production
is organized, and production grounds in case of change,
amongst others, in the demand of the products or
services the company tries to sell in the market.
In absence of legal representation of the workers in the
company, those will have the right to assign their
representation to a committee appointed pursuant to
article 41.4.
If the period of consultation ends with an agreement,
the grounds of justifications referred to in the second
paragraph will be deemed to exist, and the agreement
can only be challenged before the Labour Courts on
grounds of fraud, deceit, duress or abuse of right in its
conclusion. The agreement shall define with precision
the new working conditions applicable in the company
as well as its duration, which cannot be extended further
than the moment where a new collective bargain
agreement start being applicable in the company. The
agreement on the suspension cannot result in the
noncompliance of the obligations laid down in collective
agreements related to the elimination of discrimination
on grounds of gender or those provided for, if
applicable, in the Equality Plan applicable to the
company. Additionally, the agreement shall be notified
to the Joint Committee of the collective agreement.
In case of disagreement during the period of
consultation, each party has the right to submit the
disagreement to the Committee of the collective
agreement, which shall have a maximum period of seven
days to give its decision, starting on the moment the
12
disagreement is submitted. In absence of request of the
intervention of the Committee, or if the latter could not
reach an agreement, the parties shall have recourse to
the procedures provided in Article 83, so as to solve
effectively the disagreements that appeared during
the negotiation of the agreements referred to in this
paragraph, including the prior commitment to submit
disagreements to binding arbitration, in which case the
arbitration award shall have the same effectiveness as
the agreement reached during the period of
consultation and can only be challenged on the grounds
provided in Article 91.
If the period of consultations ends without agreement
and the procedures referred to in the previous
paragraph do not apply or do not resolve the
disagreement, each party shall have the right to submit
the resolution to the National Collective Bargaining
Agreement Consultation Committee if the suspension of
the working conditions affects work centres of the
company situated within the territory of more than one
Autonomous Community, or to the corresponding
organs of the Autonomous Communities in the other
cases. The decision of those organs, which can be
adopted within their midst as well as by an arbitrator
appointed by them to that purpose with the necessary
guarantees to ensure its impartiality, shall have to be
adopted in a maximum period of twenty-five days
starting on the date of presentation of the conflict to
those organs. The decision shall have the effectiveness
of the agreements reached during the period of
consultation and can only be challenged on the grounds
provided in Article 91.
The result of the procedures referred to in the previous
paragraphs which have ended in the in the suspension of
working conditions shall have to be notified to the
labour authority for the purposes of its deposit.
4. Collective bargaining agreements replacing a previous
agreement may affect the rights acknowledged in that
other. In such a case, the ruling contained in the new
agreement shall be completely applicable.
Article 83. Bargaining Units.
1. Collective bargaining agreements shall have the scope
of application agreed upon by the parties.
2. The most representative labour unions and
employers’ associations of national or regional character
may lay down by way of inter-professional agreements
provisions on the structure of collective bargaining,
establishing, if applicable, the rules to resolve the
conflicts of concurrence between collective bargaining
agreements from different scopes.
Those provisions may also be agreed upon in sector
agreements of national or regional character, by those
unions and employers’ associations with the necessary
legitimation, pursuant to what is provided in this Law.
3. The said workers’ and employers’ organizations may
likewise draw up agreements on specific matters. These
agreements, as well as the inter-professional
agreements referred to in Section 2 of this Article, shall
enjoy the treatment accorded by this Law to collective
bargaining agreements.
Article 84. Concurrence.
1. During its validity, a collective bargaining agreement
may not be affected by what is set forth in agreements
of a different scope, except agreement to the contrary
as provided for in Section 2 of Article 83 or what is set
forth in the following section.
2. Regulation of conditions established in a company
agreement, which can be negotiated at any moment
during the validity of collective agreements of a superior
scope, shall have priority of application with respect to
the sector agreement at state, autonomous community
or inferior level, concerning the following topics:
a) The amount of base salary and of the salary
complements, including those linked to the situation and
results of the company.
b) Payment or compensation of extra hours and specific
retribution of shift work.
c) Schedule and distribution of working time, shift work
regime, and yearly planning of holidays;
d) Adaptation of the system of professional classification
of the workers to the company level;
e) Adaptation of the aspects of contract modalities
attributed by this Law to the company agreements;
f) Measures to favour work-life balance
g) Other topics provided in the agreements and
collective bargaining agreements referred to in Article
83.2
Collective agreements for a company group or a plurality
of companies linked for organizational or production
reasons and nominally identified, referred to in Article
87.1, shall have the same priority of application for the
same topics.
13
The resolutions and agreements referred to in Article
83.2 may not regulate the priority of application set
forth in this Article.
3. Except agreement to the contrary pursuant to Article
83.2, those unions and employers’ associations meeting
the requirements of legitimation contained in Articles 87
and 88 of this Law may, at the level of the Autonomous
Community, negotiate resolutions or agreements
affecting what is set forth in agreements at national
level, provided that said decision obtains the support of
the majorities required to constitute the negotiating
committee in the pertinent bargaining unit.
4. In the case set forth in the preceding paragraph, and
unless a different regime is applicable pursuant to a
resolution or collective agreement at national level
negotiated pursuant to Article 83.2, the probationary
period, contract modalities, professional classification,
maximum yearly working time, disciplinary regime and
minimum standards on health and safety at work and
geographical mobility, shall be considered
non-negotiable items at the level of the Autonomous
Community.
Article 85. Content.
1. Within the respect of the Law, collective bargaining
agreements may regulate matters of an economic,
labour and union character and, in general any other
matters that may affect working conditions and the area
of the relations between workers and their
representative organizations and the employer and
employers’ associations, including procedures for
resolving the discrepancies arising during the
consultation periods provided for in Articles 40, 41, 47
and 51 of this Law. The arbitration awards that may be
dictated for these purposes shall have the same effect
and treatment as the agreements emerging from the
consultation periods, being subject to challenge in the
same terms as the awards dictated to resolve
controversies deriving from the application of the
agreements.
Without prejudice to the freedom of the parties to
determine the content of collective bargaining
agreements, in negotiating these, the duty shall exist, in
any case, to negotiate measures aimed at promoting
equality in treatment and opportunities between men
and women at work or, if applicable, equality plans
having the scope and content projected in Chapter III of
Heading IV of the Organic Law for the Effective Equality
between Men and Women.
2. Through collective bargaining, it shall be possible to
articulate procedures for the information and
monitoring of objective dismissals within the
corresponding scope.
Likewise, without prejudice to the freedom of contract
recognized to the parties, the duty to negotiate equality
plans in companies having more than two hundred and
fifty workers shall be given expression through collective
negotiation, as follows:
a) In collective bargaining agreements on the company
level, the duty to negotiate shall be formalized within
the framework of the negotiation of the said
agreements.
b) In collective bargaining agreements of a level superio
r to that of the company, the duty to negotiate shall be
formalized through the collective bargaining undertaken
in the company, under the terms and conditions
established in the agreements referred to, aimed at
complementing the said duty to negotiate through the
pertinent rules on such complementary nature.
3. Without prejudice to the freedom of contract referred
to in the preceding paragraph, collective bargaining
agreements shall reflect the following minimal content:
a) Determination of the concluding parties.
b) Personal, functional, territorial and temporal scope.
c) Procedures for the effective solving of discrepancies
that may arise for the suspension of the working
conditions referred to in Article 83.2, adapting, if
applicable, the procedures established for that purpose
in inter-professional agreements at national or
Autonomous Community level according to said Article.
d) Form and conditions for the termination of the
agreement, as well as period of prior notice for said
termination before the end of the period of validity.
e) Appointment of a joint committee of the
representation of the negotiating parties so as to deal
with the matters attributed by this Law and whatever
other matter is referred to them, as well as the
procedures and due dates of actuation of said
Committee, including the submission of discrepancies
happening in its midst to non judicial conflict solving
systems established by interprofessional agreements of
national or autonomous community level referred to in
Article 83.
14
Article 86. Temporal Validity.
1. It is up to the negotiating parties to establish the
duration of the agreements, with the possibility to agree
upon different periods of validity for each topic or
homogenous group of topics within the same
agreement.
2. The validity of a collective agreement, once it has
been terminated and at the end of the agreed duration,
shall be submitted to the conditions established in the
collective agreement itself.
During negotiations for the renewal of a collective
agreement, in absence of a pact, its validity shall be
maintained, even though the provisions in the
agreement containing renunciation to strikes during the
validity of an agreement shall decay from the moment of
the notification of the termination. The parties may
conclude partial agreements for the modification of
some of the extended contents so as to adapt them to
the conditions in which the activity in the sector or the
company is developing after the end of the agreed
validity. These agreements shall have the validity agreed
upon by the parties.
Procedures of general and direct application shall have
to be established by means of inter-professional
agreements at national or autonomous community level,
referred to in Article 83, so as to effectively solve
discrepancies existing at the end of the negotiation
procedure without an agreement having been reached,
including the prior compromise to submit discrepancies
to arbitration, in which case the arbitration award shall
have the same legal effects as a collective bargaining
agreement and may only be challenged according to the
procedure and based on the grounds referred to in
Article 91. Those inter-professional agreements shall
specify the arbitration criteria and procedure, expressing
in particular the voluntary or compulsory character of
the submission to arbitration by the parties in case of
impossibility of agreement in the negotiating
committee; in absence of specific agreement about the
voluntary or compulsory character of the submission to
arbitration, the latter shall be presumed to have a
compulsory character.
One year after the notification of the termination of the
collective agreement, without a new collective
agreement having been agreed upon or an arbitration
award having been pronounced, the collective
bargaining agreement shall lose its validity, except
agreement to the contrary, and the applicable collective
agreement of a superior level, if any, shall apply.
Except agreement to the contrary, collective bargaining
agreements shall be extended from one year to another
in the absence of express termination by the parties.
4. An agreement that succeeds another previous
agreement supersedes this latter completely, except for
the aspects expressly maintained.
Section 2. Legitimation
Article 87. Legitimation.
1. In the case of company agreements or agreements of
a lesser scope shall have the legitimation to negotiate:
the works council, the workers’ delegates, if applicable,
or the union sections, if present, which jointly have a
majority of the members of the works council.
The intervention of the negotiation shall correspond to
the union sections when these agree thereto, provided
they have a majority of the members of the works
council or workers’ delegates.
In case of collective agreements for a company group, as
well as those collective agreements affecting a plurality
of companies linked for organizational or production
grounds and nominally identified in their scope of
application, legitimation to negotiate in name of the
workers shall be established pursuant to section 2 of this
Article, regulating sector agreements.
2. In the case of sector agreements shall have
legitimation to negotiate in representation of the
workers:
a) The unions considered most representative
nationwide as well as the union organizations affiliated,
federated or confederated to them in their respective
scopes.
b) The unions considered as most representative at the
level of the Autonomous Community with respect to
agreements that do not transcend the said territorial
scope as well as the union organizations affiliated,
federated or confederated to them in their respective
scope.
c) Unions having a minimum of 10 percent of the
members of the works council or workers’ delegates in
the geographic and functional scope concerned in the
agreement.
3. Shall have legitimation to negotiate in representation
of the employers:
15

a) For company collective agreements or inferior level,
the employer him/herself.
b) For collective agreements for a company group, as
well as those collective agreements affecting a plurality
of companies linked for organizational or production
grounds and nominally identified in their scope of
application, the representation of said companies.
c) For sector-level agreements, the employers’
associations which have, in the geographic and
functional scope of the collective agreement, 10 percent
of the employers, in the sense of Article 1.2 of this Law,
provided they occupy the same percentage of the
affected workers, as well as those employers’
associations which in the same scope occupy 15 per cent
of the affected workers.
In those sectores without employers’ associations having
sufficient representativeness according to the preceding
paragraph, legitimation to negotiate the corresponding
sector collective agreements the employers’ associations
at national level which have at least 10 per cent of the
companies or workers at national level, as well as the
employers’ association of the autonomous Community
which have a t least 15 per cent of the companies or
workers.
4. The following shall likewise be legitimized in the
agreements of national scope: the unions of the
Autonomous Communities considered as most
representative in fulfilment of the provisions of Article
7.1 of the Organic Law on Freedom of Association and
the employers’ associations of the Autonomous
Community meeting the requirements set forth in
Additional Provision Six of this Law.
5. Any union or union federation or confederation, as
well as any employers’ association which meets the
legitimation requirement, shall have the right to form
part of the negotiating committee.
Article 88. The Negotiating Committee.
1. The repartition of members with voice and vote
within the negotiating committee shall occur in
accordance with the right of all those having legitimation
pursuant to the preceding Article and in proportion of
their representativeness.
2. The negotiating committee shall be validly constituted
when the unions or union federations or confederations
and the employers’ associations referred to in the
preceding Article represent at least, respectively, the
absolute majority of the members of the works councils
and workers’ delegates, if applicable, and to employers
who occupy the majority of workers affected by the
collective agreement.
In those sectors without organs of worker
representation, the negotiating committee shall be
deemed to be validly constituted when it is composed of
union organizations which have the condition of most
representative at national or Autonomous Community
level.
In those sectors without employers’ associations having
sufficient representativeness, the negotiating committee
shall be deemed validly constituted when it is composed
of the national or autonomous community employers’
associations referred to in paragraph 2 Article 87.3 c).
3. The designation of the members of the committee
shall correspond to the negotiating parties, who, by
mutual agreement, may designate a chairman, and avail
of the assistance of consultants in the deliberations, who
shall intervene with a voice, but without the right to
vote.
4. In the case of sector agreements, the number of
members in representation of each party cannot exceed
fifteen. For the other collective agreements it cannot
exceed thirteen.
5. If the negotiating committee opts for the non-election
of a chairman, the parties shall reflect the procedures to
be employed for moderating the sessions in the minutes
of the constituting session of the committee, and one
representative from each group shall sign the minutes
corresponding to these, jointly with the secretary.
CHAPTER II Procedures
Section 1. Proceedings, Application and Interpretation
Article 89. Proceedings.
1. The workers’ or employers’ representatives
promoting the negotiation shall give notice thereof to
the other party, setting forth in detail, in writing, the
legitimation they exercise in accordance with the
preceding articles, the scopes of the agreement, and the
matters subject to negotiation. If the promotion is the
result of the notification of the termination of a
collective agreement in force, the notice shall take place
at the same time as the notice of the termination. A
copy of this communication shall be sent to the
16
corresponding labour authority for registration
purposes, as per the territorial scope of the agreement.
The party receiving the notification may only refuse to
initiate negotiations for legally or conventionally
established reasons, or where this does not involve
revising an agreement already expired, without
prejudice to what is set forth in Articles 83 and 84. In any
event, the response must be motivated and set forth in
writing.
Both parties are obliged to negotiate under the principle
of good faith.
In case of violence to persons as well as property and
both parties verify its existence, the negotiation in
course shall immediately be suspended until such
incidents disappear.
2. The negotiating committee shall be constituted within
a maximum period of one month from the receipt of the
notice. The party receiving it shall respond to the
proposal of negotiation, whereupon both parties may
establish a calendar or negotiation plan.
3. The resolutions of the commission shall, in any case,
require the favourable vote of the majority of each
representative delegation.
4. At any moment of the deliberations, the parties may
agree upon the intervention of a mediator designated by
them.
Article 90. Formal Validity.
1. The collective bargaining agreements to which this
Law refers have to be consigned in writing, under
sanction of nullity.
2. The agreements must be presented to the competent
labour authority for the sole purpose of registration
within a period of fifteen days from their having been
signed by the negotiating parties. Once they are
registered, they shall be sent to the competent public
agency for mediation, arbitration and conciliation for
deposit.
3. Within a maximum period of twenty days from the
presentation of the agreement to the register, the
labour authority shall see to its mandatory, free of
charge publication in the “Boletín Ofical del Estado”
[Official Gazette] or, depending on its territorial scope,
in the Official Gazette of the corresponding Autonomous
Community Government or province.
4. The agreement shall come into force on the date
agreed on by the parties.
5. If the labour authority considers that an agreement
violates the law or seriously harms the interest of third
parties, it shall address ex officio the competent courts,
which shall adopt the necessary measures so as to
remedy the alleged anomalies, after having heard the
parties.
6. Without prejudice to what is set forth in the preceding
section, the labour authority shall see to the observance
of the principle of equality in collective bargaining
agreements that may contain direct or indirect gender
discrimination.
For such purposes, it may obtain assessment from the
Women’s Institute or from the regional government
agencies on equality, in keeping with territorial scope.
Where the labour authority may have addressed the
competent jurisdiction on considering that the collective
bargaining agreement possibly contains discriminatory
clauses, it shall make the matter known to the Instituto
de la Mujer or to the government agencies on equality of
the Autonomous Communities, in function of the
territorial scope, without prejudice to what is set forth in
Article 95, Section 3 of the Law on Labour Procedure.
Article 91. Application and Interpretation of the
collective bargaining agreement.
1. Regardless of the competence legally attributed to the
competent courts, the joint committee shall know and
resolve upon conflicts arising from the general
application and interpretation of collective bargaining
agreements.
2. Notwithstanding what is set forth in the preceding
paragraph, in collective bargaining agreements and in
the agreements referred to by Article 83.2 and 83.3 of
this Law, procedures such as mediation and arbitration
may be established to solve the collective disputes
arising from the application and interpretation of
collective bargaining agreements. The agreements
achieved through mediation and the arbitration awards
shall have the legal effects and be processed as the
collective bargaining agreements regulated by the
present Law, provided that those who adopted the
agreement or endorsed the arbitration compromise
enjoy the legitimation enabling them to conclude a
collective bargaining agreement, within the scope of the
conflict, as provided for by Articles 87, 88 and 89 of this
Law.
These agreements and awards may be challenged based
on the grounds and in accordance with the procedures
provided for collective bargaining agreements. In
particular, arbitration awards may be appealed in the
event that the requirements and formalities stipulated
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for arbitration proceedings have not been observed in
their conduct, or where the award rules on points which
were not subjected to its decision.
3. In case of industrial dispute related to the
interpretation or application of the collective bargaining
agreement, the Joint Committee of the same shall
intervene prior to the formal presentation of the dispute
in the context of the non judicial procedures referred to
in the preceding paragraph or before the competent
court.
4. The resolutions of the Joint Committee on
interpretation and application of the collective
bargaining agreement shall have the same legal effects
and be submitted to the same proceedings as the
collective bargaining agreements regulated by this Law.
5. These procedures may likewise be used in individual
disputes where the parties expressly submit to them.
Section 2. Adhesion and Extension
Article 92. Adhesion and Extension.
1. In their respective bargaining units, the parties
legitimized to negotiate, may, by mutual agreement,
adhere to the totality of a collective bargaining
agreement in force, provided that they are not affected
by another, informing the competent labour authority
thereof for registration purposes.
2. The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs or the
Autonomous Community government agency
competent on the matter may extend the provisions of a
collective bargaining agreement in force to a group of
companies and workers, or to an activity sector or
subsector, with the effects provided for in Article 82.3 of
this Law, owing to the damages that may be caused to
these by the impossibility of subscribing a collective
bargaining agreement in the said area of the type
contemplated in this Heading III, due to the absence of
parties legitimized for the purpose.
The decision to extend such coverage shall be adopted
subject to the petition of a party, through the
procedures that the regulations may determine, the
duration of which may not exceed three months,
whereby the absence of express resolution within the
interval established shall have the effect of refusal of the
petition.
Those who are legitimized to advocate collective
bargaining in the pertinent area in accordance with the
provisions contained in Articles 87.2 and 87.3 of this Law
shall have the capacity to initiate the procedure of
extension.
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