Pérez-Llorca Laboral al Día Analyzes Labor Updates: Timekeeping, Parental Leave, and Case Law

Pérez-Llorca’s Barcelona office hosted a new session in its "Pérez-Llorca Labor Update" series, which addressed the main regulatory and jurisprudential developments in recent months in the labor and employment field. The session, moderated by Manel Hernández, partner in the firm’s Labor, Compensation, and Benefits practice, included a participation by Yolanda Valdeolivas, Of Counsel from the same department.

Legislative trends: retirement, working hours and parental leave

In her speech, Yolanda Valdeolivas reviewed the latest retirement reforms, highlighting the new features introduced by Royal Decree-Law 11/2024, effective April 1, 2025. Among them, she explained the changes to active retirement, which allows pension and work to be combined depending on the delay in retirement age; partial retirement, which requires hiring a full-time replacement; and delayed retirement, which provides financial incentives for voluntary retirement delay.

Valdeolivas also analyzed trends in working hours and working time, marked by the failure of the Workday Reduction Bill, which failed to secure the necessary parliamentary support. In this context, she noted that the Government appears determined to strengthen the regulations on time recording, which is emerging as one of the key measures in the coming months.

The speaker also explained the reform introduced by Royal Decree-Law 9/2025, which extends the parental leave program, financially compensated by a Social Security benefit, to three more weeks. One of the extended weeks can be taken until the child reaches 12 months of age, while the remaining two weeks are granted until the child reaches 8 years of age, without modifying the parental leave regime. Similarly, there is greater protection for single-parent families, who accumulate the leave that would have been due to the other parent.

Jurisprudential Chronicle: Pérez-Llorca’s "medal winners"

For his part, Manel Hernández presented a selection of the most relevant rulings issued by the Supreme Court and the National Court between June and September 2025, on matters such as salary supplements, employer disciplinary powers, and workplace accidents.

In his now-customary "Pérez-Llorca Medal Table," Hernández highlighted three key statements:

• Gold Medal: Supreme Court ruling of July 16, 2025, confirming that judicial increases in compensation for unfair dismissal are not appropriate, considering the compensation provided for in the Workers’ Statute to be sufficient.
• Silver Medal: Supreme Court ruling of July 1, 2025, allowing the unilateral submission of an Equality Plan when unions unjustifiably absent themselves from negotiations.
• Bronze Medal: National Court ruling of June 30, 2025, specifying that, in collective dismissals, it is not enough to provide abundant documentation; it must be intelligible, in order to allow the representative committee to obtain sufficient and verified information on the reasons for the dismissal.

The session concluded with a question-and-answer session, during which attendees delved into the practical implications of these regulatory and jurisprudential developments for businesses and workers.

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