Collective agreement and your HRIS: how to configure it without losing your mind

What exactly is a Spanish collective agreement

A collective agreement (convenio colectivo) is a written contract between worker and employer representation that regulates working conditions for a sector, a company or a specific group. It's governed by articles 82–92 of the Workers' Statute and has the force of law for both parties. If your sector has an active agreement, you can't pay less or give less than it specifies — even if the worker signs that they agree. That clause would be void.

The 4 types that can apply (and which one wins)

1. National sector-wide agreement: covers an entire sector across Spain. E.g., chemicals, offices and law firms.
2. Regional or provincial sector-wide agreement: applies only in one community or province. E.g., Barcelona metal industry, Andalusia hospitality.
3. Group-of-companies agreement: specific to one group. Rare in SMEs.
4. Company-level agreement: negotiated by your company with its workers' representation. Since the 2012 labour reform, it prevails over the sector-wide one on many topics.

When several apply, the company-level wins on the topics it covers (pay, working hours, schedules). On what it doesn't cover, the sector-wide wins. And above everything, the Workers' Statute wins.

How to find the agreement that applies to you

Three paths depending on where you are:

1. If you already have signed contracts

The applicable agreement must literally appear in the contract (ET art. 8.5). Look for it in the "Working conditions" or "Legal regime" section. If it's not there, the contract is defective but not void.

2. If you're about to hire and don't know which one

Go to REGCON (the Ministry of Labour's collective-agreement registry) at regcon.mites.gob.es. Filter by CNAE (your company's activity code, found in your tax ID) and by province. The result lists active ones.

3. If you have doubts or multiple activities

Consult a labour advisor before applying anything. Picking the wrong agreement is the #1 cause of Labour Inspection notices for very serious offences (LISOS art. 8.12, fine €7,501–€225,018).

The 12 HRIS fields a collective agreement can modify

These are the points where the agreement directly impacts your platform configuration. If your HRIS doesn't let you tweak any of them per agreement, it's not really a Spanish HRIS:

Pay and compensation

1. Base salary per category and group (the agreement publishes annual tables).
2. Seniority: 3-, 4- or 5-year increments depending on the agreement. Can be fixed amounts or percentages.
3. Agreement supplement: fixed non-consolidated complement paid on top of the base.
4. Activity bonuses: night work, hazard pay, toxicity, transport, uniform. Amounts and conditions per agreement.
5. Extra payments (pagas extras): number (2, 3 or 4) and month they're earned (not all agreements pay in July and December — some in March).
6. Annual raise: the automatic increase the agreement sets each year.

Working hours

1. Annual maximum working hours: the agreement sets the cap (e.g., 1,770 in many sectors vs. ET limit of 1,826).
2. Irregular distribution: whether the agreement allows compensating long days with short ones.
3. Holidays: number of days (legal minimum is 30 calendar days, but many agreements go up to 23 working days or more).
4. Rest periods: lunch breaks, time between shifts, weekly rest.

Other impacts

1. Paid leave: marriage, moving, unavoidable duties, medical assistance for family. The agreement usually extends the ET minimum.
2. Sick-leave procedure: top-up the company pays on top of social security (many agreements require topping up to 100% of salary up to a certain day).

Practical table: what you configure in each module

• Base salary, seniority, bonuses → Payroll module · Fields per category
• Extra payments → Payroll module · Earning calendar
• Annual hours and distribution → Schedules module · Annual template
• Holidays and leave → Time-off module · Policy per agreement
• Lunch break and rest periods → Time-recording module · Break policy
• Sick-leave top-up → Payroll module · Sick-leave policy
• Annual increase → Reminder task with BOE date

The 6 most expensive mistakes when configuring an agreement

1. Applying the old agreement after a change

Agreements are renegotiated every 2–4 years. When the new one is published in the BOE, you have ~30 days to apply it. If you stick with the old one, affected employees can claim back-pay for up to 1 year.

2. Forgetting consolidated seniority

If an employee joined with 5 years of recognised experience from another company in the sector, their seniority starts at that point. Configuring "seniority from hire date" without consolidation is underpayment.

3. Calculating holidays in calendar days when the agreement says working days

30 calendar days ≠ 22 working days. If the agreement says "22 working days", you must pay at least 22 days off Monday–Friday. Computing it as calendar days can leave an employee with 7 fewer days a year.

4. Not updating hours when irregular distribution applies

Many agreements let you work 50h/week in high season (hospitality summer, retail Christmas) in exchange for compensating later. If your HRIS doesn't support the annual "bank", you accidentally generate illegal overtime.

5. Confusing non-consolidated bonuses with consolidated ones

An activity bonus paid "while the circumstance lasts" (e.g., night work) disappears when that circumstance ends. If you configure it as consolidated, you keep paying it indefinitely — and then you can't remove it without arguing substantial modification.

6. Not registering the sick-leave top-up in payroll

The agreement may require you to pay 100% of salary for the first 15 days of sick leave (vs. the 60% from ET). If you only apply the SS payment, you're underpaying the employee and under-declaring to the tax office. Both sides get angry.

How Orquiva handles it (what's included)

The Employees module lets you associate each person with their applicable agreement. The Payroll module uses that information to automatically compute: base salary per category, seniority (3-year increments or however the agreement defines), bonuses, extra payments on their real dates, and the sick-leave top-up per policy. The Time-off module applies the calendar days the agreement specifies (working vs calendar). The Time-recording module respects legal rests and any specific ones in the agreement.

Initial setup: 30–90 minutes per applicable agreement. You upload the BOE PDF, define categories and bonuses, and the system applies it across the year automatically. When the agreement is renewed, updating takes 10–15 minutes.

Frequently asked questions

What if my company covers several sectors?

Each worker is governed by the agreement that applies to THEIR real activity, not the company's. If you have developers and salespeople, each group can have a different agreement. The HRIS must allow this.

Can I improve on what the agreement says?

Always. The agreement is the minimum, not the maximum. Paying more, giving more holidays or more leave is allowed. What you can't do is pay less or give less without the worker's individual agreement (and not even then in many cases).

What if there's no agreement for my sector?

You apply the Workers' Statute directly. Rare — most activities have some applicable sector-wide agreement. If in doubt, check REGCON.

Does the agreement prevail over the individual contract?

Yes, in everything more favourable to the worker. If the contract says "21 holiday days" and the agreement says "23 working days", 23 apply. If the contract says "25 days" and the agreement says "23", 25 apply (the contract improves the agreement).

How to know when my agreement changes?

Subscribing to the BOE filtered by agreement number is the fastest. Your labour advisor usually warns you too. At Orquiva we have on the roadmap (Q4 2026) an automatic change detection that emails you.

Cited official resources

• Workers' Statute art. 82–92 (collective-agreement regime)
• REGCON · regcon.mites.gob.es (official active-agreement registry)
• BOE · boe.es (official publication of state-wide agreements)
• LISOS art. 8.12 (sanctions for incorrect agreement application)
• ET art. 8.5 (obligation to inform of the agreement in the contract)
• Labour reform 2012 (prevalence of the company-level agreement)