A dismissal that follows a workplace harassment complaint can only be declared void if it is challenged within twenty working days of notification (article 59.3 of the Spanish Workers’ Statute). That is a limitation period that cannot be extended, it does not stop while you talk to the company or wait for the internal protocol to answer, and once it has run the retaliation stands even if it is obvious. The compensation for the damage the harassment has caused you is time-barred after one year (article 59.1 of the same statute), and the compensated termination of the contract under article 50 can only be requested while the employment relationship is still alive. The employee who puts up with it in silence for months and ends up leaving of his own accord loses all three, and loses unemployment benefit as well.
That is what doing nothing costs. What follows is what the law treats as harassment, what consequences a complaint has for the employer and for the harasser, what the evidence looks like and what you can obtain.
What the law treats as workplace harassment and what falls outside
The Spanish Criminal Code describes workplace harassment as the repeated performance, within an employment relationship and taking advantage of a position of superiority, of hostile or humiliating acts which, without amounting to degrading treatment, constitute serious harassment of the victim (article 173.1, second paragraph). Law 15/2022 on equal treatment defines harassment in its article 6 as conduct whose purpose or effect is to violate a person’s dignity and create an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. The Workers’ Statute recognises in article 4.2.d the right to physical integrity and to an adequate risk prevention policy, and in article 4.2.e the right to privacy and to the respect due to the employee’s dignity, with express protection against harassment.
Those three provisions produce the pattern the courts look for. Repeated conduct sustained over time, aimed at a specific person and having the effect of humiliation, isolation or professional annulment. Stripping someone of their duties, keeping them out of meetings, ridiculing them in front of the team, changing their shift every week for no reason, reprimanding in public what others are corrected for in private. A single episode, however unpleasant, rarely qualifies. Case law separates harassment from ordinary workplace conflict, from the demanding boss and from stress caused by workload. A negative appraisal, a disciplinary sanction or a heated argument are not harassment on their own, although they can form part of a sequence that is. That distinction is the first thing we examine at the firm when someone describes their situation, because it determines which route makes sense.
Who the harasser is changes the applicable rule
Downward vertical harassment, by a superior against a subordinate, is the most common and the only one that fits squarely within the criminal offence of article 173.1, because that provision requires the offender to take advantage of a position of superiority. Horizontal harassment between colleagues and upward harassment, by subordinates against a manager, do exist, and the employer answers for them in the labour courts in exactly the same way. In the criminal courts, however, other offences have to be used, degrading treatment under the first paragraph of article 173.1, coercion, threats or psychological injury under article 147.
Sexual harassment and harassment on grounds of sex have their own rules (article 184 of the Criminal Code, Organic Law 3/2007 on effective equality between women and men), and the employer is obliged to have a specific procedure for them. Where the harasser is a current or former partner who works at the same place, the criminal law treats it as gender violence, and we have explained how that defence works from the other side. Discriminatory harassment on grounds of origin, religion, disability, age or sexual orientation falls under article 6 of Law 15/2022 and has its own infringement under the Law on Infringements and Sanctions in the Social Order.
Consequences for the employer
The employer is liable even if the harasser is a colleague and even if management says it knew nothing. Law 31/1995 on Occupational Risk Prevention imposes on it a duty of effective protection of the safety and health of its workers (article 14) and the obligation to assess and avoid risks, including psychosocial ones (article 15). Tolerating harassment, failing to investigate it or having no channel to report it is a breach in its own right, separate from the harasser’s.
At the administrative level, Royal Legislative Decree 5/2000 classifies as very serious infringements acts by the employer contrary to the respect for the privacy and dignity of workers (article 8.11), sexual harassment occurring within the sphere of the employer’s management (article 8.13) and discriminatory harassment where the employer, knowing of it, takes no steps to prevent it (article 8.13 bis). Retaliation against someone who has made a claim falls under article 8.12. Fines for very serious infringements range from 7,501 to 225,018 euros depending on the degree.
At the judicial level, the employer bears the compensation under article 50 of the Workers’ Statute, the additional compensation for moral damage under article 183 of Law 36/2011 and, if it has dismissed in reaction, the reinstatement and back pay that come with a void dismissal (article 55.6).
Consequences for the harasser
The offence under article 173.1, second paragraph, of the Criminal Code carries a prison sentence of six months to two years. It is a less serious penalty, it is time-barred after five years (article 131) and, for a first offender, usually ends with the prison term suspended, but the conviction produces a criminal record, the judgment sets civil liability in favour of the victim and the employer can be brought into the proceedings as subsidiary civil liable party.
Workplace harassment rarely comes alone. Insults and threats by message, calls outside working hours, comments on social media. Each piece has its own legal fit, and threats and coercion are offences in their own right whatever the employment context.
The criminal route makes sense when the conduct is serious, there is hierarchical superiority and the aim is a personal consequence for the perpetrator. The labour route protects the job and the money. They are not mutually exclusive and can run at the same time, with two cautions. What is stated and filed in one is usable in the other, so consistency matters. And a criminal complaint dismissed for insufficient evidence does not close the labour route, which demands less, but it hands the employer an argument it will use. At the firm, the decision to open the criminal route is taken by looking at the available evidence rather than at the indignation, however justified.
What you can claim from the employer
Three things, and they add up.
The first is the compensated termination of the contract for serious breach by the employer (article 50.1.c of the Workers’ Statute). The employee asks the court to declare the contract terminated and the compensation is that of unfair dismissal, thirty-three days’ salary per year of service capped at twenty-four months’ pay (article 56.1), with the period before 2012 calculated at forty-five days. Termination by this route places the employee in a legal situation of unemployment, so benefit is paid. Resigning gives none of that.
The second is compensation for moral damage under article 183 of Law 36/2011, which the judge sets according to the seriousness and duration of the conduct and which is compatible with the first (article 183.3). The courts tend to use the fine brackets of the sanctions law as a guide, which gives an idea of the scale.
The third arises if the employer has dismissed or sanctioned in reaction. A dismissal that breaches fundamental rights is void (article 55.5), and voidness obliges reinstatement with payment of lost wages, in addition to compensation for damage. To all of that is added the classification of the sick leave as an occupational accident, discussed below, with a higher benefit.
At the firm we conduct these claims from the preliminary stage through to judgment, and you can see what our labour law practice covers.
Three routes and what each one delivers
The three routes are not compulsory steps. None is a precondition for the next and they are chosen according to what you want and which deadline is running.
| Route | Who decides | What you can obtain | Deadline that governs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internal company protocol | The employer itself | Cessation of the conduct, relocation of the harasser, internal disciplinary sanction | Whatever the protocol sets, and it stops no legal deadline |
| Labour Inspectorate | The inspector, by formal record | Order to the employer, fine of 7,501 to 225,018 euros, report usable as evidence | The infringement is time-barred after three years |
| Labour Court | The judge | Compensated termination, moral damages, void dismissal and reinstatement | One year for compensation, twenty working days if there is a dismissal |
| Criminal Court | The judge | Six months to two years’ imprisonment for the perpetrator, criminal record, civil liability | The offence is time-barred after five years |
The internal protocol gives you no money and does not protect your job on its own, but it leaves a written record that the employer knew, and that record carries weight later in court. The Inspectorate sanctions and documents, it does not compensate. Only the Labour Court delivers the three claims described above.
The internal protocol, when to use it and when to skip it
Every employer must have a procedure for sexual harassment and harassment on grounds of sex (article 48 of Organic Law 3/2007), and most collective agreements extend that obligation to harassment in general. To find out whether yours exists, ask the workers’ representatives, the health and safety committee or the prevention service, or look in the equality plan and the collective agreement.
If the company has no protocol, does not answer within a reasonable time or closes the file without investigating anything, you can go straight to the Labour Inspectorate and the courts. No rule obliges you to exhaust the internal route, and the employer’s inaction is itself evidence of its breach of article 14 of the Prevention Law. The same applies when the harasser is the owner of a small business and there is nobody to activate anything. In that case the protocol is pointless, the Inspectorate and the courts are the routes, and the criminal route gains strength because the superiority required by article 173.1 is self-evident.
When it pays to activate the protocol and when it is better to go directly to the Inspectorate depends on the case, the size of the company and the evidence already in hand. That decision, and the drafting of what is filed, is part of our work.
The Labour Inspectorate and anonymity
Law 23/2015, which organises the Labour Inspectorate, provides that anonymous complaints are not processed (article 20.4). The complaint has to be signed, but the inspector has a duty of confidentiality about its origin and the employer is not told who filed it. In practice, in a company of four people the inference is immediate, and in one of four hundred it is very hard to draw. That is a factor in choosing the moment.
The Inspectorate can also act on its own initiative and at the request of workers’ representatives. What the inspector records carries a presumption of accuracy as to the facts he personally verifies (article 23 of that law), and the report he produces is one of the strongest pieces of evidence that can later be taken to the Labour Court. What the complaint must contain and how it is filed so that the inspector acts quickly is the lawyer’s job, and it makes no sense to improvise it.
How workplace harassment is proved
Harassment is proved by accumulation. No single piece is usually enough and almost all of them together are usually more than enough. The law helps the employee at one decisive point. Once the employee produces indications that a fundamental right has been violated, it falls to the employer to show that its conduct had an objective, reasonable cause unrelated to any violation (article 181.2 of Law 36/2011, and in the same sense article 30 of Law 15/2022). Indications, not full proof. That reversal is what makes many cases viable.
Sick notes and medical and psychological reports carry weight when the doctor links the condition to the situation at work and there is continuity over time. Email, WhatsApp or internal messaging counts if it is kept on the original device and in context, not as loose undated screenshots. Witnesses are the hardest evidence to secure while they remain on the payroll and the easiest once they have left, so former colleagues are an asset. Your own log of incidents with dates, places, who was present and what happened is not evidence in itself, but it organises everything else and allows it to be cross-checked. Company documents, changes of shift, duties or workplace, internal communications, appraisals, show the sequence. And the Inspectorate’s report, where there is one, frames it all.
On recordings the rule is simple. Recording a conversation in which you take part is lawful and the Constitutional Court has accepted it for decades. Recording other people’s conversations or installing devices to capture what others say when you are not present can be an offence of disclosure of secrets (article 197 of the Criminal Code) and turns the victim into a suspect.
Retaliation, dismissal and the protection against reprisals
The guarantee of indemnity is the constitutional doctrine that prohibits an employee from suffering consequences for having asserted his rights. A dismissal, a sanction, a transfer or a demotion that follows a harassment complaint meets the voidness of article 55.5, provided the time connection is shown and the employer does not prove a genuine, different cause.
Law 2/2023 on the protection of persons who report regulatory breaches has strengthened that protection. Anyone who reports, through the company’s internal channel or the external channel the law provides, a serious or very serious administrative infringement, and harassment is one, is covered by the prohibition of reprisals in its article 36, which expressly lists dismissal, suspension, non-renewal, change of post, negative appraisals and reputational harm. Its article 38 further provides that, where the reporting person suffers a detriment in the two years following the report, it is presumed to be a reprisal and the party that adopted it must prove otherwise.
All of this is lost if the dismissal is not challenged within the twenty working days of article 59.3. With a dismissal letter in hand there is no time to negotiate first and sue later.
Sick leave while the complaint runs
While the complaint is being processed the contract remains in force and you must keep going to work. Stopping without cover is an abandonment that the employer will treat as resignation or as grounds for disciplinary dismissal. If the situation cannot be sustained, the way out is medical leave or, in the most serious cases, asking the court for an interim measure within the fundamental rights protection proceedings.
Sick leave is issued by your primary care doctor, usually as a common contingency for anxiety or adjustment disorder. Article 156 of the General Social Security Law allows illnesses whose exclusive cause is the performance of work to be classified as an occupational accident, and the courts have applied this to proven workplace harassment. The practical difference is that the occupational contingency is paid at 75 per cent from the day after leave begins, with no qualifying period, against 60 per cent for the first days under a common contingency. That classification is requested from the National Social Security Institute and, if refused, claimed in court. The medical report linking the leave to work is both evidence of the harassment and the basis for that claim.
Mistakes that lose the case
Resigning. The most serious and the most common. Whoever hands in a voluntary resignation loses the article 50 compensation, unemployment benefit and much of the force of the damages claim, because the employer will say you left for no reason.
Stopping work without medical leave, for the reasons set out above.
Answering the harasser in kind. An insult or a threat in writing gives the employer a disciplinary ground and the harasser a counter-complaint.
Deleting messages or changing phones without keeping the originals. Screenshots without the device are worth little.
Signing a settlement, a voluntary resignation or a separation agreement put in front of you in a meeting without having it reviewed. What is signed under the words “full and final settlement” is very hard to reopen.
Waiting for the perfect case. The evidence is built during the proceedings, and the deadlines at the start of this article do not wait.
What you can do today
Start a dated log of each episode, who was present and what happened, and keep it outside the company’s systems. Keep messages on the original phone and back them up. Ask your doctor to record in the report the connection you describe between your condition and your work. Put in writing, even in a short email, any change of duties or hours imposed on you, asking for the reason. Do not sign anything handed to you for signature on the spot. And do not discuss the matter in the company chat or on social media.
What is at stake and what we do
Those who pursue a harassment claim on their own usually lose at one of the three points where everything is decided. They let the twenty days on the dismissal run out, resign before suing, or arrive in court with screenshots and recollections but without the indications that trigger the reversal of the burden of proof, and the employer then wins with any plausible-looking cause.
At the firm we review the evidence you have, decide with you which route to open and in what order, draft the communication to the employer and the complaint to the Inspectorate where appropriate, request the classification of the sick leave as an occupational accident and take the claim for protection of fundamental rights, compensated termination or void dismissal through to judgment, within our labour law practice.
You can call +34 677 841 007 or write through the contact page. When you call, have to hand your contract and latest payslips, sick notes and medical reports if any, the messages on your phone, the date of the latest episode and, if you have already been dismissed or sanctioned, the letter with its notification date. With that we can tell you in the first conversation whether there is a case and how much time is left.
Frequently asked questions
Can I report workplace harassment anonymously?
Not to the Labour Inspectorate, because Law 23/2015 provides that anonymous complaints are not processed. The complaint is signed, but the inspector has a duty of confidentiality about its origin and the employer is not told who filed it. The company’s internal channel may accept anonymous reports under Law 2/2023, although protection against reprisals is then harder to enforce because nobody knows it was you. In court the claim is signed by you and there is no possible anonymity.
Do I have to keep going to work while the complaint is processed?
Yes, unless you are on medical leave or the court grants an interim measure. The contract remains in force and failing to attend without cover is treated as abandonment of the post, which gives the employer a ground for disciplinary dismissal and destroys the claim. If you cannot sustain the situation, see your doctor. Leave for anxiety or adjustment disorder linked to work is the usual route and also serves as evidence.
Can I be dismissed for having reported workplace harassment?
They can try, and a dismissal that responds to a harassment complaint is void under article 55.5 of the Workers’ Statute, which obliges reinstatement with payment of lost wages and compensation for damage. Law 2/2023 further presumes that any detriment suffered in the two years following the report is a reprisal and requires the employer to prove otherwise. The condition is to challenge the dismissal within twenty working days of notification. After that period, voidness is lost.
Do I need a lawyer to report workplace harassment and is it worth claiming?
To activate the internal protocol or file a complaint with the Inspectorate it is not compulsory, and the law does not require one for the claim in the Labour Court either, although the employer will come with its own. Claiming is worth it when there is conduct repeated over time, some documentary or medical evidence, and something to recover, the job, termination compensation or a dismissal to overturn. It is not worth it when it is a one-off conflict with a difficult boss with no continuity and no trace, because the court will not classify it as harassment and the strain has no return. In that case the advice is to document and wait to see whether the conduct is repeated.