A psychologist’s report saying “anxiety due to workplace harassment” proves that you suffer from anxiety, not that harassment caused it, because the person signing it records what the patient says and witnessed nothing at the workplace. A diary you keep at home has a similar limit, since it orders the dates but remains your own account, and a loose screenshot can be challenged by the employer and is hard to defend if the phone it came from no longer exists. What really carries weight is emails and messages from the boss kept on the original device, written instructions that strip you of duties or cut you off, colleagues who saw what happened, and the formal complaint you made to the company, with its date and what the company did next. In these cases Spanish law eases what you must prove, because well-founded indications are enough to shift onto the employer the burden of justifying its conduct, but those indications must be specific, verifiable facts.
At Perseus & RC Abogados harassment cases are handled by Ana María Reza Cortiñas and Luis Jurado Cano. Ana is registered with the A Coruña Bar Association under number 6064 and is managing partner of the firm’s civil department. Luis, number 6317, has spoken on digital investigation at INCIBE’s CyberCamp 2015 and at SECAdmin, which helps when the evidence of harassment consists of messages, emails and audio. The rest of our employment work is on the employment law page.
Harassment, or a conflict at work
Not every harsh treatment is harassment. A demanding boss, a one-off argument or a shift change you dislike are conflicts dealt with in other ways. Harassment involves hostile or humiliating acts repeated over time against one person, such as leaving you without work or giving you pointless tasks, excluding you from the team, ridiculing you in front of others or threatening you with dismissal again and again. It can come from a manager, from colleagues or both, and the employer is also liable when it knows and does nothing. For foreign workers in Galicia, harassment because of your origin, accent, religion or language is also discrimination, and Spanish equality law protects you whatever your nationality and whether or not you have legal residence.
Gathering evidence while you still work there
Keep every email, message and audio file on the device where you received it, without forwarding or cropping it, because if the employer disputes its authenticity the original will need to be examined, as we explain in why electronic evidence decides cases. Recording a conversation you take part in does not breach the secrecy of communications and is generally accepted as evidence, but recording conversations you are not part of can be a crime. Do not take internal documents home, since that may hand the employer a disciplinary ground it did not have. Make a written complaint to the company or through its harassment protocol if there is one, with facts, dates and names, and note who was present at each incident, because the court can summon them as witnesses.
What the law offers
The main route is a special claim for breach of fundamental rights before the social court, which is urgent, takes priority and needs no prior conciliation. It seeks a declaration that there is harassment, an order to stop it and compensation for moral damage and proven losses. When filing, you can ask for interim measures, such as being released from attending work or moved to another post, and the judge decides on them at an urgent hearing held within forty-eight hours of the summons. If you would rather leave, you can ask the court to end the contract for a serious breach by the employer, which brings unfair-dismissal severance, compatible with the damages, and entitles you to unemployment benefit. Where the harasser is a superior, the Criminal Code also punishes serious repeated hostile or humiliating acts with prison.
If you are dismissed after complaining, the dismissal can be declared void as retaliation, with reinstatement and back pay, but you only have twenty working days to challenge it, as explained on our dismissals page and in unfair, null or fair dismissal in Spain. If the harassment leads to a long illness, see permanent incapacity. If the court hearing is in Spanish and yours is not fluent, the judge can appoint an interpreter for your statement.
Where we are
Rúa Torreiro 13, 3.º C, 15001 A Coruña, Spain. Phone +34 677 841 007. If you would rather not call from work, write to us through the contact page and we will call you back at a time that suits you, in English or Spanish.
Related reading
- Why electronic evidence decides cases in Spain
- Cyberstalking in Spain, what legal protection you can obtain
- Being threatened or coerced in Spain, when it is a crime and what you can do
- Unfair, null or fair dismissal in Spain, what each means and what you can claim
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between workplace harassment and a demanding boss?
A demanding boss gives orders, corrects and can get things wrong, and all of that falls within the power to direct work. Harassment means hostile or humiliating acts repeated over time against a specific person that degrade their dignity or working conditions. It is proved with dated facts, not with a general feeling of unease.
Colleagues mock my accent and my nationality. Is that harassment?
It can be, and it is also discrimination. Spanish equality law protects everyone regardless of nationality and whether or not they have legal residence, and harassment based on racial or ethnic origin is a very serious infringement when the employer knows about it and does nothing. Write down each incident with the date and who was present, and keep any messages on the phone where you received them.
Can sick leave for anxiety caused by harassment count as a workplace accident?
Yes, if it is shown that work was the only cause of the illness. You ask the Social Security Institute to determine the origin of the sick leave, and that classification brings a higher benefit and an official record that the harm came from work. Tell your doctor what is happening at work from the first visit, because your medical history is the basis of that request.
Is workplace harassment a crime in Spain?
It can be. The Criminal Code punishes with six months to two years in prison anyone who, taking advantage of a position of superiority, repeatedly carries out hostile or humiliating acts amounting to serious harassment. If you claim compensation in the criminal case, you cannot claim it at the same time before the social court, so the route has to be chosen before reporting.
Can I stop going to work while the case is running?
Not on your own initiative, because it may be treated as a voluntary resignation. When filing the claim, you can ask the judge to release you from attending work, move you to another post or workplace, or adopt measures regarding the harasser, and the judge decides at a hearing held within forty-eight hours of the summons. If your health prevents you from working, the route is medical sick leave.