LABOS Revista de Derecho del Trabajo y Protección Social
Labos. Revista de Derecho del Trabajo y Protección Social es una revista científica en materia de Derecho Laboral y Seguridad Social. Es una publicación editada desde 2020, con una periodicidad cuatrimestral. Para la publicación de originales, Labos utiliza un sistema de revisión externa por pares, siendo los evaluadores científicos expertos en el conocimiento de las materias en las que se investiga y cuyos nombres se irán publicando en la página web de la revista. Se trata de una Revista científica que se publica en formato digital de acceso abierto (OA).
Los autores ceden a la Revista Labos los derechos de reproducción y distribución, así como cualquier forma de explotación del trabajo.
Martínez Girón, Jesús y Arufe Varela, Alberto. Los catedráticos españoles de Derecho del trabajo (1917-2024).
Copyright (c) 2026 LABOS Revista de Derecho del Trabajo y Protección Social https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Sierra, Elisa. Prevención de riesgos laborales y perspectiva de género
Change of judicial criteria and application over time of the doctrine unified by the Fourth Chamber of the Supreme Court
Labour, precariousness and mental health
The complex relationship between work and mental health is a topic of increasing relevance in public debate and in research from different fields of knowledge. It is addressed in this text paying particular attention to precariousness and its negative impact on the emotional and psychological sphere of workers, as well as to the new emerging risks associated with new forms of work organisation and performance in digitalised environments. The starting point is the traditional approach focused on psychosocial risks, which is essential, but a broader perspective is also proposed, pointing to an assessment on the adequacy and, where appropriate, review and adaptation of some areas of labour law that can be key to reducing precariousness and protecting mental health in the workplace, along with other public policies in this regard. The contents, conclusions and proposals of the report on precariousness and mental health in Spain (PRESME Report) are analysed, as well as the needs and possibilities of action regarding new forms of organization of business and work that generate precariousness and new risks for mental health, and the convenience of revising the regulation on working time considering technological and socioeconomic transformations, and aiming an adequate and healthy work-life balance. Finally, the importance of the collective dimension for addressing these issues is emphasized, and some author's personal reflections and proposals for debate are provided.
The Legal Governance of Occupational Mental Health
This gap between legal recognition and practical implementation manifests in three principal areas. At the preventive level, the management of psychosocial risks is still partial and heterogeneous, shaped by cultural inertia, insufficient methodological tools, and the lack of specialized technical expertise. At the benefits level, the exclusion of mental disorders from the official list of occupational diseases requires their forced accommodation within categories originally designed for physical risks, which complicates the recognition of work-related causation. Finally, liability mechanisms display limited effectiveness, largely due to evidentiary requirements that do not align with the multifactorial nature of these conditions. In this context, workplace mental health remains a legal category in the process of formation. Its effective consolidation requires regulatory development, the technical strengthening of the preventive system, and a conceptual reassessment of traditional legal categories within labour law.
Mental health in the workplace in the age of artificial intelligence
It is an incontrovertible fact, statistically proven, that new smart technologies contribute to a global decrease in accident rates, improving the well-being of workers. However, their dark side cannot be ignored either, as they do not eliminate harmful substances entirely, adding to traditional risks other emerging hazards capable of crossing the thin and vulnerable line of mental health, so severely impacted by the pandemic and so threatened in the current production environment. This worrying reality compels us to design appropriate legal responses that cannot be limited to providing mere compensatory protection, but rather require a commitment to an effective preventative policy in the workplace.
Violence against women. The role of the media in preventing it
This paper examines the relevance of integrating a gender perspective into the journalistic profession, given its importance for the ethical and deontological treatment of violence against women. The exercise of journalism requires training in media coverage guided by principles that serve the public interest, facilitating the understanding of a social problem that must not be silenced. It is essential that this approach avoids encouraging sensationalism, voyeurism, for trivializing narratives, thereby preventing revictimization and the reinforcement of misogynistic and patriarchal cultural patterns. The aim of this research is to propose responsible labor policies and professional practices, recognizing the influence of communication on public opinion as a tool for combating violence against women.
Paid leave as a tool for balancing family and work life
The Royal Decree-Law 5/2023, of June 28, introduced significant changes to work permits. Specifically, the amendment to those included in Article 37 of the Workers' Statute is of particular significance because it not only expands the scope of these permits but also enhances shared responsibility for caregiving by adapting to new family realities. However, this new regulation is not without its difficulties, and its practical application is revealing problems of interpretation and application that require judicial intervention and clarification through collective bargaining.
Partial retirement and replacement contract
This paper examines the legal framework governing partial retirement within the Spanish Social Security system, focusing on its legislative development, current configuration, and the interpretation given by the Supreme Court. It analyses how this form of access to the pension—allowing the simultaneous ved from its original purpose of promoting employment towards a regulation aimed at ensuring the financial sustainability of the system. The study addresses the requirements for access to partial retirement, the compatibility between work and pension, the specific features of the replacement contract, and the consequences of non-compliance for both the employee and the employer. Particular attention is given to the innovations introduced by Royal Decree-Law 11/2024 and to the interpretative issues arising from its implementation. Based on a combined analysis of legislation and judicial doctrine, the paper highlights the complexity of an institution that, beyond the most recent reform, calls for a systematic reading capable of reconciling employment policy, system sustainability, and legal certainty.
The modification of the termination of the contract due to permanent disability introduced by Law 2/2025, of April 29
Law 2/2025, of April 29, which modifies the consolidated text of the Workers’ Statute Law regarding the termination of employment contracts due to permanent disability, establishes new regulations in Article 49.1.n) of the ET (Working Law), with the aim of protecting the continued employment of individuals who become permanently disabled and eliminating the automatic termination of contracts in these cases. This article analyzes the need for the reform produced, which aims to adapt our legal system to international and European regulations in accordance with the judgment of the CJEU of January 18, 2024 (Ca Na Negreta case, case C-631/22).
The decarbonisation process and the challenges of social protection. The role of retirement
The starting point is the idea that the path to climate neutrality will inevitably lead to the loss of many jobs, as well as the permanent exclusion of certain low-skilled, who cannot be expected to undergo professional retraining for which they lack the minimum knowledge base, nor do they have the capacity to do so. In this context, social protection systems can function as accompaniments to these policies, encouraging or discouraging business decisions. To this end, the paper will specifically address the functionality of retirement pensions, in their various forms, as a dignified exit for these workers. At the same time, it will analyse the various public protection measures that, in contexts of restructuring or workforce adjustments, as well as adverse crises of various kinds, have been implemented in order to prevent the vulnerability and neglect of those who, directly affected by these events, may have been excluded from their requirements on the grounds of age.
Challenges arising from the expansion of procedural guarantees and admission of appeals in the constitutional protection of fundamental rights on the Labor Court
The heavy reliance on the special procedure for the protection of fundamental rights—resulting from an expanded scope encompassing any fundamental rights and public freedoms, despite its initial design to safeguard trade union freedom—led the legislature to redirect its processing toward specific procedural modalities while maintaining all the guarantees reserved for this preferential and summary proceeding. In practice, the extension of these safeguards has helped curb the misuse of the special procedure, albeit at the cost of generating new issues: mandatory joinder of actions and disruption of the general rule on the admissibility of extraordinary appeals, particularly when constitutional claims are combined with matters of ordinary statutory law.
Directive on corporate sustainability due diligence. Labor perspective
This paper analyses the corporate due diligence directive (2024/1760) from a labour perspective based on five general and complementary approaches. The first concerns the shift from ethics to law that the directive entails. The second relates to the possibilist perspective that permeates the entire study. The third concerns the category of due diligence. The fourth focuses on the labour rights at work protected by the directive. And the fifth and final approach, the least explored to date, looks at the directive from a national perspective, despite the fact that the idea behind the directive is unequivocally transnational.
The exercise of the company's disciplinary power with respect to people with an employment relationship within the scope of Law 2/2023 on the protection of whistleblowers
The disciplinary power of companies in the field of employment relationships can be exercised within the scope of Law 2/2023, of February 20, regulating the protection of persons who report regulatory breaches and the fight against fraud, primarily in relation to four types of employees: the reporting person, the affected person, the person responsible for the company’s internal information system, and other subjects responsible for breaches of that law other than the aforementioned. The analysis of how the integration, not always easy, between the principles, rights, and obligations of these four subjects within the scope of Law 2/2023 linked to the employer with a labour contract with the latter’s disciplinary power is what constitutes the essential object of this article.
Corporate disciplinary authority and Law 2/2023
Copyright (c) 2025 LABOS Revista de Derecho del Trabajo y Protección Social
This study examines the differentiated legal grounds for compensation and consequences of fair, unfair, and void dismissals under current Spanish labor regulations. Based on these legal bases, it analyzes the impact of the decision of the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) against Spain for breach of Article 24 of the European Social Charter (ESC), which places assessed compensation for unfair dismissal at issue, both in a judicial review of conventionality and in a possible legislative reform. I develop legal arguments that conclude with the lack of direct application of Article 24 of the ESSC and the judicial impossibility of establishing additional compensation for unfair dismissals, even more so after the Supreme Court ruling of December 19, 2024, which clarifies the scope of the conventionality review. I develop legal arguments that conclude with the absence of binding force of the ECSR decision on unfair dismissals. The study concludes, on a political level, with various options for reforming unfair and invalid dismissal in this context.
From subordinate work to vulnerable work. (Critical note on the new proposals for universalization of labor protection regulations)
The study analyzes the evolution of work towards new formulas in the context of digitalization and current service capitalism, and how such evolution compromises traditional solutions for labor regulations. It denounces the natural evolutionary limits of “alienness” and “dependency” and questions their ability to continue exclusively defining the field of new labor protection legislation. But it also criticizes the new proposals for labor protection brought forward in this context. First, linking labor protection with the idea of “economic dependence.” And, second, connecting the new labor legislation with the circumstance of being “vulnerable work”, which is assumed whenever it is any type of productive activity carried out “without contribution of capital or company structure”.
Calculation of pensions arising from occupational risks for workers on reduced working hours. A discriminatory regulation (with and without a gender perspective)
The CJEU has not found sufficient evidence –at least from a statistical perspective– to conclude that the calculation of permanent disability pensions arising from occupational risks for workers on reduced working hours due to work–life balance measures constitutes sex discrimination. This is despite the fact that the regulatory base is calculated on the salary received at the time the contingency arises, which is lower than usual precisely because the worker is on reduced hours. The absence of appropriate statistics should not prevent this regulation from being deemed as discriminatory. Spanish law and EU law support this conclusion in all cases of temporary reductions in working hours, without relying exclusively on sex discrimination.
Digital content creators. A new grey area in labour law?
The emergence of digital content creators (influencers, bloggers, instagrammers, tik-tokers, youtubers, etc.) requires, from a labour law perspective, a reflection on the nature of their activities. The purpose of this is to identify the possible concurrence of the characteristic features of an employment relationship and, therefore, the possible consideration of them as employees, hence their inclusion in the scope of application of labour law. The plurality of the activities carried out by these digital content creators opens up a reflection on their possible consideration as artists, trade representatives, or standard’ employment relationship. Are we facing new grey areas in labour law?
Abusive dynamics of web-based platforms dedicated to online microtasks and potential avenues for protection
The objective of this study is to highlight a multifactorial and transnational reality, still atypical for the Spanish legal system, which must be differentiated and addressed: the work of web-based digital platforms workers dedicated to online microtasks as a new form of job precariousness. The challenges which derives from the obligation to transpose Directive (EU) 2024/2831 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2024 on improving working conditions in platform work will be addressed from three main perspectives, enabling the first steps to confront this problem: the legislator, the Labor and Social Security Inspection and the social agents.
Regulation of work on digital platforms. State of the art and commentary on regulatory changes
This study focuses on one of the most controversial issues in recent years within labor and social security law: platform work, which in most cases has resorted to commercial contracting, sometimes in fraudulent practice. In this sense, although the phenomenon of false self-employment is by no means a new problem, it has undoubtedly acquired greater dimensions as a result of the proliferation of this type of company. Following the momentous Supreme Court ruling 805/2020 of September 25, which established the existence of an employment relationship for platform delivery drivers, the Spanish legislator, on the one hand, approved Law 12/2021 (known as the “Rider Law”) and, on the other, established a new criminal offense (Article 311.2 of the Criminal Code) that punishes those who hire fraudulently with prison sentences. The directive 2024/2831 is also discussed, which addresses the improvement of working conditions in platform work in a much broader way than the national standard.
Prohibited AI practices in the workplace. Analysis and possible solutions from Spanish labour legislation
This article explores the relationship between prohibited artificial intelligence practices established by Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (Artificial Intelligence Regulation) and Spanish labour legislation. Beginning with a systematic review of prevalent academic concerns regarding artificial intelligence in the employment context, and through an analysis of relevant legal provisions, the article defines these prohibited practices and hypothesises which among them bear the closest connection to employment relationships. Additionally, given their relation to prohibited practices and the use of similar technologies, the article examines points of intersection with Directive (EU) 2024/2831 (Platform Work Directive). Through this comprehensive approach, the article assesses whether there is a necessity to amend key elements of Spanish labour law, while also highlighting certain grey areas that will likely require future clarification.
Ensuring corporate liability for the payment of surcharges on Social Security benefits
The validity of the surcharge on Social Security benefits for failure to comply with occupational risk prevention measures
What to do with the Social Security benefits surcharge ? Thoughts and suggestions for a much needed debate
The surcharge for social security benefits, established in article 164 of the current Social Security regulation, is an odd concept, hybrid and anachronistic, with an insufficient and confusing legal framework. Criticisms of this concept are practically unanimous. Many are those who defend its modification, even its suppression, but legislators have not taken any action in the face of these criticisms and so, this peculiar surcharge has been with us for over a century. This situation benefits nobody. Workers or their successors have to face a tangle of administrative and judicial proceedings in order to receive the surcharge; if they do in fact receive it at the end of the road, because, since employers are not allowed to have insurance for it, there is a high probability that the Treasury of Social Security will declare the surcharge uncollectible, especially when the sums are often very high. Results are no more satisfactory from the employer's perspective: the surcharge might be disproportionate or mistimed. This paper reflects on some of the most problematic aspects of this legal concept and offers some suggestions in terms of lex data and lex ferenda, as contributions to a debate that must be reopened about an urgent legal reform.
Blasco Jover, Carolina. Cuestiones clave sobre la readmisión y los salarios de tramitación en el despido improcedente
The benefits surchage. Chronicle of an anachronism
Montoya Medina, David. Enfermedad, contrato de trabajo y discriminación por razones de salud
Labor relations in the face of climatic emergencies. The reform of the Workers' Statute by Royal Decree-Law 8/2024
Organic Law 1/2025, of January 2, on measures regarding the efficiency of the Public Justice Service, and its effects on social jurisdiction