New piece of legislation on road transport includes measures in the labor field

The legislation has been published in Royal Decree-Law 3/2022 of March 1, 2022, on measures to enhance sustainability in road freight transport and on the functioning of the logistics chain, and transposing Directive (EU) 2020/1057 of 15 July 2020 laying down specific rules with respect to Directive 96/71/EC and Directive 2014/67/EU for posting drivers in the road transport sector, and on exceptional measures regarding price reviews in works public contracts.

Within the scope of labor matters, the royal decree-law introduces special rules for road transport drivers in Law 45/1999, as well as various labor and social security measures.

1. Amendments to Law 45/1999 concerning the posting of workers in the framework of the provision of transnational services

A new chapter is added to that law, devoted to special rules on posting road transport drivers, which include obligations to exchange information on the posting of these workers and obligations for freight transport companies.

2. Labor and Social Security Infringements and Penalties Law

In relation to the transnational posting of drivers, article 10.3 of the Labor and Social Security Infringements and Penalties Law is amended to treat as a very serious infringement any fraudulent posting of workers by companies not carrying on substantive activities in their state of establishment, together with any fraudulent posting of workers who do not habitually work in the home member state.

Moreover, the following very serious infringements are added in article 23.1 of the Labor and Social Security Infringements and Penalties Law, relating to obligations to register workers and pay social security contributions under the European Union social security regulations. Namely:

• Breaching provisions in the European Union regulations on coordination of social security systems, regarding determination of the applicable social security legislation, where the breach gives rise to the registration or inclusion on the social security system of employers, employees, or self-employed workers.
• Breaching provisions in the European Union regulations on coordination of social security systems, regarding determination of the applicable social security legislation, where the breach gives rise to failure to obtain registration on and make payments into the Spanish social security system for individuals posted to Spain from another European Union member state, whether involving an employer posting workers to provide services as employees or individuals traveling to provide services as self-employed workers.

3. Other new legislation

• Implementation of active employment policies: in 2022, temporary contracts linked to active employment policy programs and coming under conditions of participation, calls for applications or legal instruments for the program concerned, approved before December 31, 2021, may be entered into for the time periods stated in the conditions of participation, call for applications or legal instruments concerned.
• Article 16 of the Labor and Social Security Inspection System Law is amended to require the authorities responsible for road transport to provide the social security inspection system with any information they possess that may be relevant for the conduct of inspections and, in particular, any necessary for overseeing compliance with the chapter on the posting of road transport drivers in Law 45/1999.
• Amendments to the General Social Security Law: the rules on the length of unemployment subsidies are amended in relation to certain workers under permanent intermittent contracts and on retirement contributions while receiving unemployment subsidies for workers aged over fifty-two.