How to Fire On Probation

In these last years of economic crisis, in Spain we have experienced a very bad state in the labor market. The unemployment numbers rose every month and it looked like it was not hitting bottom. Fortunately, that situation has changed and in Spain now more jobs are created compared to other countries in Europe, but that is thanks in part to the various ways of contracting legislated allowed in our country. One of those multiple forms of contracting has been the test contract. Keep reading this article as I explain how to fire on probation.

What do we know as a trial period?

Anyone might come up with an idea if asked what the trial period is. As its name indicates, it is a way of hiring carried out to have the possibility of testing possible candidates for a job. You will perform a test performing the same tasks as a worker and thus see if you are fit or not to work. This way of contracting in Spain has been around for many years and the majority of the population knows it.

Law

The trial period is regulated in article 14 of the Statute that Workers have in its first section.

Duration

It is logical that the trial period should not last indefinitely, its law has a temporary duration limit. This time limit is depending on the work you are going to do:

• No more than 6 months in jobs with training as technicians.
• Not exceeding 2 months for other jobs.
• With an extension of up to 3 months if the company that hires you has less than 25 workers.

Activities in the duration of the trial period

During the duration of the trial period, the employer and worker have to behave as if it were any contract and you will perform the usual activities corresponding to the position, you will also perform the activities taught by the employer and thus perform the required job.

End of the test

When the trial period is over it can end in two ways:

• Failure
• Overcoming

If you have managed to pass the trial period, the employer now has the obligation to accept you in a normal way by making you a contract with a limited or indefinite time. That trial period counts as seniority for the company if it were treated as normal time, being that really an advantage for you.

If you have not passed that trial period then the employment relationship is broken, if the agreed payments for the trial have been met then you have nothing else to consider.

Fire you in the trial period

If in the duration of the trial period it is determined to end the employment relationship before its termination depending on the previously agreed terms, the following details must be taken into account:

• The first detail is that it is not necessary to notify it in advance by either of the two, that is, the employer or the employee at any time while the trial period may partially break the employment relationship, without prior notice to the opposite person and without involving any sanction but it is a good dynamic advantage to employment looking for that in the trial period.
• The second detail is that there is no compensation since it is not mandatory to notify it in advance, but if it has to be paid in case of ending the trial period without having finished it before, it is the part of the agreed salary that remains and this is how if you had completed Totally the probationary period, this means that the worker who is in probation will receive his net salary the total of the period, completing it working or not.

Insistence on test contracts

To prevent a possible abuse in these types of contracts on the part of employers, the law has the prohibition that if an employee has previously done a job in the company having any contract, this employee can return to the company in the future having a contract on probation to do the same tasks. This means that if perhaps a person is hired in tests for two months, he is fired, and after a few months the company wants to hire him again, then a new contract must be made since it cannot be a test.

Procedure

The procedure has its distinctions comparing it with the normal dismissal, since it is not mandatory to notify it in advance, the twenty days do not have to be served until the employment relationship is completely terminated as if it occurs with the normal dismissal. In this case, you only have to send a letter to dismiss the employee stating the causes or reasons for the end of that employment relationship and you also have to make the remaining payment for the part.