The supervisor sends the rota by WhatsApp at eleven in the morning for an afternoon shift that starts at four, and in the same group reminds everyone that anyone with «another job on the side» is out. Since 5 October 2026 both things have an answer in Royal Decree 723/2026, of 9 September, which prevents the employer from banning parallel employment unless there is an objective incompatibility and requires shifts to be announced with a minimum notice period. If the employer responds to you exercising those rights with a dismissal, the rules of any dismissal apply, that is, the termination of the contract by the employer’s decision, which the Employment Court classifies as fair, unfair or void depending on the cause alleged and the way it was communicated. A dismissal in retaliation is void, with reinstatement and payment of the wages lost, and a dismissal without a cause the employer can prove is unfair, with compensation of 33 days’ salary per year of service.
Evidence that is on your phone right now and signatures you must not give
In a dismissal claim the employer has to prove the facts in the letter and you have to prove the retaliation, so the first thing is to preserve how the order was given. Keep the contract, the latest payslips, the rotas and the messages in which shifts are communicated to you, with screenshots that show the time they were sent and the working day they refer to. Do not delete the WhatsApp group or leave it, and if you are removed, export the full chat first. If the ban on having another job was verbal, ask for written confirmation with a neutral message, without arguing, because that confirmation is the basis of everything that follows.
Do not sign a new full-dedication agreement or a contract amendment put in front of you «to regularise things» without someone reading it first. Do not sign a voluntary resignation, which is sometimes offered as an «amicable» exit and leaves you with no compensation and no unemployment benefit. If you are handed a dismissal letter or a final settlement, sign it with the date and the words «no conforme» (not agreed), which takes away none of your rights and avoids any argument about whether you accepted it. Keep going to work as normal and do not reply in the group with insults, which are ammunition for a disciplinary dismissal that does not yet exist. If the employer asks for your personal phone or your email password to check what you do outside working hours, do not hand it over. And note down from today the deadline of twenty working days to challenge a dismissal, because it is a limitation period that cannot be recovered.
A second job outside your hours, article 21 of the Workers’ Statute and article 9 of Royal Decree 723/2026
The Workers’ Statute has never prohibited holding more than one job. Article 21 only bars unfair competition, which means working for a competitor using what you know about the employer, and allows a full-dedication agreement only if it is signed in writing and carries express financial compensation, from which the worker can moreover withdraw with thirty days’ notice. Without that agreement, what you do at nine in the evening in another bar, another warehouse or on a delivery platform is none of your employer’s business, and a generic «exclusive dedication» clause without consideration is worthless.
What Royal Decree 723/2026 adds, transposing Directive (EU) 2019/1152 on transparent and predictable working conditions, is in its article 9. The employer may not prohibit the worker from having another job outside working hours or treat the worker adversely for having one, and the only restrictions allowed are those that respond to an objective incompatibility, on grounds such as health and safety, the protection of business secrets or the avoidance of conflicts of interest. The burden of justifying that incompatibility lies with the employer, and a «we don’t want people with two jobs here» said in the group or in the changing room stops being an internal policy and becomes evidence of prohibited retaliation.
This changes what happens if you are dismissed. Until now, a disciplinary dismissal for having another job almost always ended in a finding of unfairness, because there was no breach of good faith to prove. From October, if you have exercised the right in article 9 and the employer reacts, article 17 of the same royal decree, which protects against retaliation for exercising the rights it recognises, is added to the constitutional guarantee against reprisals in article 24 of the Constitution and opens the door to nullity, which is a different classification and a far more expensive one for the employer.
A shift announced the same day, the five and three day notice periods and the minimum predictability of article 10
The Statute already contained two notice periods that hardly anyone respects in hospitality, retail or logistics. Where the employer distributes working time irregularly over the year, article 34.2 obliges it to communicate the day and time of work with a minimum notice of five days. Where the contract is part-time and you are called in for agreed additional hours, article 12.5.e) requires three days’ notice, unless the collective agreement sets a shorter one. A rota that arrives in the morning for that same afternoon breaches both, and the applicable collective agreement may require more.
Article 10 of Royal Decree 723/2026 introduces minimum predictability of work for those whose work pattern is entirely or mostly unpredictable. The employer has to set out in writing the reference hours and days within which it can require you to work, and may only call you in within that framework and with the established notice period, which must also be in writing. The Directive the rule transposes recognises that, where work is demanded outside the reference hours or without that notice, the worker may refuse the shift without adverse consequences, and that the late cancellation of work already assigned must be compensated. These are new rights with no judicial interpretation yet, so the prudent course is to exercise them by leaving a written record of the reason for refusing rather than by simply not turning up.
On-demand contracts, requesting more predictable employment and training during working hours
Articles 11, 12 and 13 complete the picture. Article 11 limits on-demand contracts, those activated only when the employer calls, to prevent their abusive use. Article 12 allows a worker with a certain length of service to request a more predictable and secure form of employment, for example moving from a part-time contract with additional hours to fixed working time, and obliges the employer to reply in writing with reasons, so that silence or a refusal without reasons is already a breach. Article 13 establishes that training the employer is obliged to provide is free of charge, counts as working time and is delivered, wherever possible, within working hours.
All of this links to the duty of written information in article 8.5 of the Statute, developed by Royal Decree 1659/1998 on information to the worker about the essential elements of the contract. If your contract does not set out the reference hours, the shift system or the conditions of additional hours, you are entitled to receive them in writing, and their absence counts against the employer in any later claim.
Types of dismissal, disciplinary, objective and collective
With those rights on the table you need to know how the employer can respond, because each type of dismissal requires a different letter and pays differently. Disciplinary dismissal under article 54 punishes a serious and culpable breach by the worker, and its closed list includes disobedience, absences, insults, breach of contractual good faith and a continued and voluntary drop in performance. It costs the employer nothing if proven and it is the one usually used against someone who has another job or does not turn up for a shift, normally under the label of disobedience or good faith.
Objective dismissal under articles 52 and 53 does not attribute fault. It is based on incapacity, failure to adapt to technical changes or economic, technical, organisational or production grounds, and requires a written notice stating the cause, fifteen days’ notice and making available to the worker at that same moment compensation of twenty days per year capped at twelve months’ pay. Collective dismissal under article 51, the ERE, is an objective dismissal affecting within ninety days a number of workers above the legal thresholds, ten in companies with fewer than one hundred, ten per cent between one hundred and three hundred and thirty from three hundred upwards, and is processed through a consultation period with the workers’ representatives, of thirty days or fifteen in companies with fewer than fifty, under Royal Decree 1483/2012. The minimum compensation is the same twenty days.
Dismissal for poor performance or for refusing a shift
The ground in article 54.2.e) requires the drop in performance to be continued and voluntary. The employer has to prove a prior level of performance or an objective benchmark, a sustained fall and that the fall depends on the worker’s will rather than on a lack of resources, a change of duties or an illness. Poor performance that is not culpable fits, if anything, into the supervening incapacity of article 52.a), which is an objective ground paid at twenty days per year. When poor performance appears in the letter right after you have reported that you hold another job or have refused a shift notified without notice, the sequence of events is the main evidence of retaliation.
With disobedience the question is finer. The general rule is to obey and claim afterwards, and the courts only accept refusing an order when it is manifestly unlawful, dangerous or contrary to dignity. A shift communicated outside the reference hours or without the notice the rule now requires is an unlawful order, but this is new ground and the manner of refusing weighs as much as the right to do so. Breach of good faith, for its part, is used against those who work elsewhere during sick leave or serve the employer’s clients on their own account, and also after a mistake involving money, such as falling for a cyber scam from the workstation, which is not a culpable breach and whose claim against the bank I cover in the article on bank refunds after phishing.
The dismissal letter under article 55 and what happens when something is missing
Article 55.1 requires a disciplinary dismissal to be notified in writing, with the facts on which it is based and the effective date. The facts have to be specific, with identifiable dates and conduct, because the employer will not be able to argue anything at trial that is not in the letter and you are entitled to know what to defend yourself against. A letter that says «loss of trust» or «poor performance» without a single detail is formally defective and leads to a finding of unfairness, just like a verbal dismissal. If the collective agreement requires a contradictory file or a prior hearing, omitting it produces the same result, as does dismissing a workers’ representative without opening a file.
In an objective dismissal the letter has two further requirements, the simultaneous availability of the twenty days’ compensation and fifteen days’ notice. Article 53.4 contains a rule worth knowing before claiming for what it is not. Lack of notice or an excusable error in calculating the compensation do not make the dismissal unfair, they only oblige the employer to pay what is missing, whereas failing to make the compensation available or omitting the written cause does make it unfair. And if the letter promises compensation that is never paid, that non-payment is claimed in the same employment courts and is not fraud even if it looks like it.
Fair or unfair dismissal, and why retaliation makes it void
The judge classifies the dismissal under article 55 and article 56 sets the consequences. It is fair when the employer proves the cause and has complied with the formalities, and then there is no compensation in the disciplinary case and the twenty days remain in the objective one. It is unfair when the cause is not proven or the letter does not meet the requirements, and the employer chooses within five days of the judgment between reinstating with back pay or compensating with 33 days per year capped at twenty-four months’ pay. It is void when the motive is discriminatory or breaches fundamental rights, in which case reinstatement is compulsory, with payment of everything lost since the dismissal.
| Classification | Compensation | Reinstatement | Back pay (salarios de tramitación) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fair disciplinary | None | No | No |
| Fair objective | 20 days per year, capped at 12 months’ pay | No | No |
| Unfair with compensation | 33 days per year, capped at 24 months’ pay | No | No |
| Unfair with reinstatement | None | Yes, at the employer’s option | Yes, from dismissal to reinstatement |
| Void | None | Compulsory | Yes, from dismissal to reinstatement |
Back pay under article 56.2 is the salary that would have been earned between the dismissal and the reinstatement, and since 2012 it only accrues with reinstatement or nullity, not when the employer opts to pay compensation. The option belongs to the employer, unless you are a legal representative of the workers, in which case article 56.4 gives it to you. If the employer does not exercise the option in time, it is deemed to reinstate.
Nullity under article 55.5 has objective cases, where the situation alone suffices without proving the motive, such as pregnancy, birth leave, reduced working hours for care or being a victim of gender violence, and cases requiring proof, such as discrimination or retaliation for making a claim. Sick leave is not on the automatic list, but since Law 15/2022 illness is a prohibited ground of discrimination and a dismissal during sick leave is declared void when it is shown that the illness was the real motive. Retaliation for exercising the right to parallel employment, for refusing a shift announced without notice or for requesting more predictable employment now comes in through article 17 of Royal Decree 723/2026 and the guarantee against reprisals, and this is the ground on which a dismissal that looked like an unfairness worth a few thousand euros turns into reinstatement with full back pay.
In the firm, when a dismissal arrives in which the employer mentions the second job or the refused shift, the first thing we settle is whether there is a basis to seek nullity or only unfairness, because it changes the claim, the evidence and what is demanded at conciliation, and it is part of what we do in the employment law area.
Dismissal compensation, the calculation with an example and income tax
The calculation starts from the daily salary, obtained by dividing the gross annual salary including prorated extra payments by 365. With 24,000 euros gross per year the daily salary is 65.75 euros. Four years of service in an unfair dismissal give 132 days, 33 per year, and compensation of 8,679 euros; in a fair objective dismissal it is 80 days and 5,260 euros. Periods of less than a year are prorated by months. The compensation is fixed by law, it does not depend on the actual harm or on how hard it is to find another job, and the Supreme Court has upheld that character against attempts to raise it through the European Social Charter.
The final settlement (finiquito) is something else. It is the settlement of what you are owed for work already done, untaken holidays, the proportional part of extra payments and the days of the current month, and it is paid on any termination, including a voluntary resignation. Signing the settlement as «no conforme» does not prevent you collecting it and preserves the claim against the dismissal. Dismissal compensation is exempt from income tax up to 180,000 euros in the amount set by law, with one condition in the unfair case, that it be recognised at the conciliation hearing or in a judgment, because an amount agreed in a letter without that recognition is taxed as salary.
Claiming unemployment benefit after a disciplinary, objective or collective dismissal
A dismissal, whatever its type and classification, is a legal situation of unemployment. You receive unemployment benefit after a disciplinary dismissal even if the employer presents it as deserved, because the benefit depends on having contributed for at least 360 days in the previous six years and on the loss of the job not being voluntary, not on the dismissal being fair. What gives no right to benefit is voluntary resignation, which is why the offer of «sign the resignation and we’ll give you a reference» is the one that costs most to those who accept it. If the judgment later orders reinstatement with back pay, the SEPE recovers from it what it paid during that period. The application has a deadline of fifteen working days from the dismissal, and claiming against the employer does not suspend it.
Twenty working days, prior conciliation and trial before the Employment Court
Article 59.3 of the Statute gives twenty working days from the effective date of the dismissal to challenge it, and it is a limitation period that is not interrupted by asking for explanations, negotiating in the group or waiting for the proper letter. Once the deadline passes the dismissal becomes final with the classification the employer gave it. Before filing the claim it is compulsory to attempt administrative conciliation, in Galicia before the Xunta’s service, which suspends the deadline while it is processed and at which a share of dismissals are closed with the employer recognising unfairness and paying the compensation.
If there is no agreement, the claim follows the dismissal procedure in Law 36/2011 regulating the employment courts, where article 105 places on the employer the burden of proving the facts in the letter and prevents it from arguing different ones. The duration depends on the court’s workload and varies greatly between judicial districts, and the worker pays no court fees and has a recognised right to legal aid in the employment jurisdiction. The real cost lies in what is lost through a badly framed claim, especially when nullity is sought without evidence of retaliation or when it is given up because the worker does not know it exists. How that evidence is built and what is demanded at conciliation is the lawyer’s job, which is why I do not detail it here.
End of contract, probation period or resignation, what is not a dismissal even though it looks like one
Not everything that takes you out of the company is a dismissal. The end of a temporary contract on the agreed date is compensated with twelve days per year under article 49.1.c) and is not challenged as a dismissal unless the contract was fraudulent, which is the case if the temporary cause did not exist or contracts were chained beyond what is permitted. Failing the probation period under article 14 allows either party to withdraw without cause or compensation, provided the period was agreed in writing, does not exceed the legal maximums and does not conceal a prohibited motive, because withdrawal during pregnancy is void by law. Voluntary resignation carries no compensation and no unemployment benefit, and a resignation signed under pressure, with the threat of a disciplinary dismissal «with cause» if you do not sign, can be attacked for defective consent, although it requires proving the pressure. When that pressure moves from managerial firmness to intimidation it enters different territory, that of threats and coercion.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to sign the dismissal letter? What do I write if I disagree?
You are not obliged to sign it and refusing does not prevent the dismissal. The signature only proves receipt, so sign with the date and the words «no conforme» and keep a copy. If you do not sign, the employer will deliver it before witnesses or by registered letter and the dismissal takes effect anyway. The date matters because the twenty working days to challenge run from it.
Is a verbal dismissal, or one by WhatsApp or email, valid?
A verbal dismissal exists but is unfair for lack of form, because article 55.1 requires a written notice with the facts and the date. An email or a WhatsApp with specific facts and a date can meet that requirement and the courts have accepted them, so keep them with the time stamp. If the letter is defective, the employer can repeat the dismissal within twenty days paying the intervening wages.
With the letter in your hand, the step that comes next and who takes it
The twenty working days run from the effective date and the next step is twofold. It falls to you to gather today what I listed at the start, the contract, the rotas with their sending time, the ban in writing and the letter signed as not agreed, and to sign nothing else. It falls to the lawyer to decide, before filing the conciliation request, whether the dismissal is attacked as unfair or as void for retaliation, because that decision sets what is claimed and does not change well halfway through. If the employer has not yet dismissed you and has only banned the other job or announces shifts without notice, that is the moment to act, with a formal communication placing on record the rights under Royal Decree 723/2026 before the reaction arrives in the form of a letter. In the firm we handle both scenarios within the employment law area; you can write to us through the contact page or call +34 677 841 007 and we reply as soon as possible.