If you have been notified of a forced transfer in Spain 2026, it is important to clearly distinguish whether you are dealing with a transfer, a temporary posting, or a simple change of workplace. Your rights, the deadlines to respond, and any possible compensation depend on that difference. If you need your case reviewed in detail, you can write to Fernanda Vargas on WhatsApp or book an appointment on her Calendly. This information is general and does not replace an individual analysis of your situation.
What Geographic Mobility Is and When There Is a Transfer
Geographic mobility is the employer’s power to change the place where work is performed, but not all changes are subject to the same legal rules. The key point is whether the measure requires a change of residence.
There is a transfer when the company decides to send the employee to a different workplace and that change requires them to move home. To adopt that measure, the law requires the existence of economic, technical, organizational, or production-related grounds.
This system does not apply in the same way to those who were hired specifically to provide services at mobile or itinerant workplaces. In those cases, the very nature of the position changes the starting point of the analysis.
That is why, before accepting an employer’s decision or challenging it, the first step is to classify the facts correctly: a forced move to another city is not the same as a change of workplace within the same area.
Transfer, Temporary Posting, or Simple Change of Workplace: Key Differences
In practice, many disputes arise because the company calls any change of destination a “transfer,” or because the employee sees it that way even though legally it is not. This table summarizes the basic differences.
| Measure | What characterizes it | Main rights |
|---|---|---|
| Transfer | Change to another workplace that requires a change of residence | Minimum 30 days’ notice; option to accept with reimbursement of expenses, terminate with 20 days’ pay per year, or challenge it |
| Temporary posting | Temporary change of destination | Salary, travel expenses, and per diems; minimum 5 working days’ notice if it lasts more than 3 months; 4 working days of leave at the home of origin for every 3 months |
| Simple change of workplace | Does not require a change of residence | It does not automatically fall under art. 40; it may amount to a substantial modification if it upsets the contractual balance because of time, cost, or impact on work-life balance |
In addition, the law establishes an important rule: temporary postings that, over a period of 3 years, exceed 12 months are treated as transfers. In other words, a temporary measure cannot be extended indefinitely to avoid the more protective legal framework.
Grounds the Company Must Justify and Minimum 30 Days’ Notice
Where there is a genuine transfer, the company cannot simply impose it. It must justify it on economic, technical, organizational, or production-related grounds. Mere business convenience is not enough if it does not fit within one of those grounds.
In addition, the decision must be notified with a minimum notice period of 30 days both to the affected employee and to their legal representatives.
That notice period matters a great deal for two reasons. First, because it gives you time to assess whether to accept, terminate the contract, or sue. Second, because the calculation of the deadlines to take legal action is linked to the written notice, as we will see below.
Your Three Options in the Event of a Transfer: Accept, Terminate the Contract, or Challenge It
If the company notifies you of a transfer that requires a change of residence, the law gives you three options.
- Accept the transfer. In that case, you are entitled to reimbursement of the expenses of your own and those of dependent family members. That reimbursement is specified on the terms agreed between the parties, but it can never be lower than the minimums set by the applicable collective bargaining agreement (convenio colectivo).
- Terminate the contract. If you do not want to take on the move, you may terminate your employment relationship with entitlement to compensation.
- Challenge the decision. If you believe the grounds do not exist or that the measure is not lawful, you may bring a claim before the labor courts.
There is an important nuance: if you decide to challenge it, the measure remains immediately enforceable while the proceedings are underway. In other words, the claim does not by itself suspend the transfer.
If you need help assessing which of these options best fits your case, Fernanda Vargas, employment lawyer in Madrid, can review the employer’s notice, the applicable collective bargaining agreement, and the deadlines before your rights of action expire.
20 Days’ Pay per Year and the Right to Unemployment Benefit if You Do Not Accept the Transfer
If you choose to terminate the contract because you do not accept the transfer, you are entitled to compensation of 20 days’ salary per year of service, with periods of less than a year calculated pro rata by month, up to a maximum of 12 monthly payments.
This point is especially relevant because, although the decision to terminate comes from the employee, the General Social Security Act (Ley General de la Seguridad Social) considers that in these cases there is a legal unemployment situation. Therefore, someone who terminates their contract because of a transfer under art. 40 may access unemployment benefit, provided they meet the other requirements for receiving unemployment benefit.
In practice, this avoids a common misunderstanding: this is not an ordinary voluntary resignation (baja voluntaria) without protection, but rather a legally provided termination where the company imposes a transfer involving a change of residence.
Temporary Postings: Per Diems, 5 Days’ Notice, and 4 Days of Leave Every 3 Months
Not every change of destination is permanent. If the measure is temporary, we are dealing with a posting, and the rules are different.
- The company must pay the salary, travel expenses, and per diems.
- If the posting lasts more than 3 months, there must be a notice period of no less than 5 working days.
- The employee is entitled to 4 working days of leave at their home of origin for every 3 months of posting, not counting travel days as such.
- The travel corresponding to that leave is paid by the company.
In addition, the law closes the door to temporary postings that are abusively chained together: if over a period of 3 years they exceed 12 months, they are no longer treated as postings and instead become subject to the rules for a transfer.
Change of Workplace Without Moving: When It Is a Substantial Modification According to the Supreme Court
If the change of workplace does not require a change of residence, we are not dealing with a transfer under art. 40. But that does not mean the measure is always neutral or irrelevant.
Supreme Court Judgment 194/2025, of March 12, notes that a change of workplace without moving home may amount to a substantial modification of working conditions under art. 41 when, because of its cost in time and money and its impact on work-life balance, it upsets the contractual balance.
In that case, the Supreme Court analyzed a situation involving around 58 to 60 kilometers with public transport journeys of 3 to 4 hours a day, approximately 50% of the working day, and with no organizational grounds on record to support the decision. In that context, the change was not treated as a transfer, but it could be assessed as a substantial modification.
The judgment itself distinguishes another precedent, Supreme Court Judgment 624/2021, in which a change of around 56 kilometers was not considered a substantial modification. The practical lesson is clear: distance alone does not decide the case. The actual travel time, cost, availability of transport, and effect on personal and family life also matter.
Internal Mobility and the Prohibition of Discrimination
Supreme Court Judgment 7/2026, of January 13, adds another relevant point in mobility matters: in an internal call, employees subject to a retention agreement may participate, even if their start date is deferred; and it is not permissible to exclude those on temporary incapacity, because that constitutes discrimination on grounds of illness under Act 15/2022.
For companies, this case law requires them to review the rules governing access to mobility processes. For employees, it opens up a line of defense when a call bars them because they are on sick leave or because they have a retention commitment that affects only the timing of joining.
Collective Transfers: Thresholds, Consultation Period, and Evasion of the Law
When the transfer affects a significant number of people, it ceases to be a purely individual issue and the rules on collective transfer come into play.
There is a collective transfer when the measure affects, within a period of 90 days:
- The entire workforce of one workplace, provided that it employs more than 5 employees.
- In companies with fewer than 100 employees, at least 10.
- In companies with between 100 and 300 employees, 10% of the workforce.
- In companies with more than 300 employees, at least 30.
In these cases, a consultation period must be opened with the legal representatives, with a maximum duration of 15 days.
The negotiating committee cannot exceed 13 members on each side. The employees’ representative committee must be formed within 7 days, or within 15 days if any of the affected workplaces does not have legal representatives.
In addition, the law penalizes the artificial use of successive transfers: if, in successive periods of 90 days, the company carries out transfers below the thresholds, without new grounds justifying them, those decisions are considered an evasion of the law and are null and void.
In response to a collective transfer, a collective dispute may also be brought, and filing it suspends the individual actions already underway or that could be started until it is resolved.
Preferential Rights: Spouses, Victims of Violence, and People With Disabilities
Geographic mobility does not affect everyone equally. That is why the law recognizes preferential rights and specific protective rules.
- Spouses in the same company. If one spouse is transferred to another town or city, the other is entitled to a transfer to the same town or city, if there is a job opening.
- Legal representatives of employees. They have priority to remain in their position.
- Extensions by collective bargaining agreement or agreement. The collective bargaining agreement or the agreement reached during the consultation period may grant priority to remain to people with family responsibilities, of a certain age, or with disabilities.
Victims of Gender-Based Violence, Sexual Violence, or Terrorism
Victims of gender-based violence, sexual violence, or terrorism who are forced to leave their position in the town or city where they worked in order to make their protection or their right to comprehensive social assistance effective have a preferential right to take another position of the same professional group or equivalent category that the company has vacant at any of its other workplaces.
In these cases, the transfer or change of workplace includes a reservation of the previous position for an initial period of between 6 and 12 months. Once that period ends, the person may choose to return, remain at the new destination, or terminate the contract with compensation of 20 days per year, up to a maximum of 12 monthly payments.
People With Disabilities Who Need Treatment in Another Town or City
The law recognizes a similar right for people with disabilities who can show the need to receive, outside their town or city, rehabilitation treatment, physical or psychological, related to their disability. In these cases as well, there is a preferential right to fill a vacancy at another workplace.
How to Challenge It: 20 Working Days and What the Judge May Declare
Challenging a transfer or an employer decision subject to the procedure in art. 138 of the Labor Courts Act (LRJS) is subject to a time limit of 20 working days.
That period is counted from the written notice. If there is no written notice, the period does not start to run. This procedural detail is decisive, because many disputes begin with verbal notices, ambiguous emails, or incomplete communications.
In individual proceedings, the court may declare the measure justified or unjustified. If it considers it unjustified, it must recognize the employee’s right to be reinstated to the original workplace.
If the case raises doubts as to whether there really is a change of residence, whether the issue fits better under art. 41, or whether there have been defects in notification, it is advisable to review the strategy as soon as possible. A mistake in the legal classification can waste valuable time.
Checklist for Employees and for Companies
Checklist for Employees
- Check whether the change really requires a change of residence or only involves a new commute.
- Keep the written notice and the exact date you received it.
- Check whether the company invokes economic, technical, organizational, or production-related grounds.
- Assess which of your options is most suitable: accept, terminate, or challenge.
- If you accept, calculate and document your own expenses and those of your dependent family members.
- If you do not accept the transfer, check your compensation of 20 days per year, pro rata by month and capped at 12 monthly payments.
- Bear in mind that termination because of a transfer may give access to unemployment benefit if you meet the requirements.
- If you are going to sue, monitor the 20 working day time limit from the written notice.
- If the change does not require you to move home, analyze whether, because of its impact, it may be a substantial modification.
- If you are a legal representative, a spouse in the same company, a victim of violence, or a person with a disability in the legally defined cases, review your preferential rights.
Checklist for Companies
- Correctly distinguish between a transfer, a temporary posting, and a simple change of workplace.
- Do not process under art. 40 a measure that does not require a change of residence, unless that requirement genuinely exists.
- Document the ETOP grounds justifying the decision.
- Notify it in writing with at least 30 days if there is a transfer.
- For temporary postings of more than 3 months, respect the 5 working days’ notice.
- Correctly pay expenses, travel, and per diems where applicable.
- If the measure reaches the legal thresholds, activate the collective transfer procedure and the consultation period.
- Set up the representative committee on time and remember the limit of 13 members on each side.
- Avoid splitting decisions into successive periods of 90 days without new grounds, because this may be considered an evasion of the law and lead to nullity.
- Do not exclude from mobility processes people on temporary incapacity or those subject to a retention agreement when their start date can be deferred.
If you have questions about a forced transfer, a temporary posting, or a change of workplace, you can contact Fernanda Vargas, employment lawyer in Madrid, by WhatsApp or book an appointment on Calendly to review your case in time and protect your rights.