Spain: A new royal decree-law modifies the breastfeeding regime, unemployment and the priority of regional collective bargaining agreements

Royal Decree-Law 7/2023 of 19 December adopting urgent measures to complete the transposition of Directive (EU) 2019/1158 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on the reconciliation of family and working life for parents and carers, and repealing Council Directive 2010/18/EU, and for the simplification and improvement of the level of unemployment protection, introduces a number of new features in the field of employment and social security, including the following:

• Regarding the possibility of accumulating breastfeeding, article 37.4 of the Workers' Statute is amended, removing the reference to the terms provided for in collective bargaining or in the agreement with the company.
• With regard to the priority of application of regional collective agreements, paragraphs 3 and 4 of Article 84 of the Workers' Statute are amended. Thus, within the scope of an autonomous community, trade unions and employers' associations may negotiate collective agreements and interprofessional agreements in the autonomous community, which will have priority over any other sectoral agreement or state-level agreement, provided that such agreements and agreements obtain the support of the majorities required to form the negotiating committee in the corresponding bargaining unit and their regulation is more favorable for employees than that set out in the state-level agreements or accords.
              
  Non-negotiable matters at the level of an Autonomous Community include the probationary period, hiring modalities, professional classification, maximum annual working hours, disciplinary regime, minimum standards on occupational risk prevention and geographic mobility.
• The unemployment regime is also modified, especially with regard to the welfare regime, introducing changes, among others, in the requirements for access, duration and amount of unemployment benefit.