Prohibition on Dismissals in Spain: Extended until December 31

If you work in transport, agriculture or fishing, or run a business in one of these sectors, you may have read that the prohibition on dismissals in Spain linked to the Middle East crisis ended on September 30, 2026. That is no longer the case: Royal Decree-law 25/2026 has extended it until December 31, 2026 for companies that receive its direct aid.

If you have been handed a dismissal letter or have doubts about your company, you can message Fernanda Vargas on WhatsApp or book an appointment on Calendly. Below we explain, with the text of the Official State Gazette (BOE) in hand, who the extension affects, which dismissals it blocks, what happens if the company does not respect it and how long you have to file a claim.

The Prohibition on Dismissals Did Not End on September 30

Royal Decree-law 25/2026, of September 29, adopting and extending certain measures under the Comprehensive Plan in Response to the Crisis in the Middle East, was published in the BOE on September 30, 2026 and came into force the following day, October 1, 2026. In other words, there was no gap in dates between one rule and the next: the previous limit expired on September 30 and the new one began to apply on October 1, although each rule refers to the companies that benefit from the direct aid it provides.

The Standing Committee (Diputación Permanente) of the Congress of Deputies validated this royal decree-law at its session of October 16, 2026, and the validation agreement was published in the BOE on October 20. The rule therefore remains fully in force.

In our article on the prohibition on dismissals until September 30 we explained the origin of this measure. What we said there about how it works is still useful, but the end date has changed: it is now December 31, 2026.

What Article 36 of Royal Decree-law 25/2026 Says

The prohibition is in Chapter VI of the royal decree-law, which covers social measures. Its Article 36, titled “Prohibition of dismissal”, says in its first paragraph:

“1. Companies that benefit from the direct aid provided for on the occasion of this royal decree-law may not dismiss on grounds of force majeure or on economic, technical, organizational and production grounds arising from the situation it seeks to address, until December 31, 2026.
Failure to comply with this obligation shall entail the repayment of the aid received and the classification of the dismissal as null and void.”

Three conditions follow from this text, and all of them must be met at the same time for the prohibition to apply:

• The company must be a beneficiary of the direct aid provided for in Royal Decree-law 25/2026.
• The dismissal must be based on force majeure or on economic, technical, organizational or production grounds.
• Those grounds must arise from the situation the rule seeks to address, that is, from the crisis in the Middle East and the rise in costs it has caused.

The preamble itself sums it up: until December 31, 2026, companies that benefit from the aid may not carry out dismissals or terminations of activity when these are justified on those grounds and originate in the situation the royal decree-law regulates.

From June to December: the Three Extensions in a Table

The same clause has appeared in three successive royal decree-laws. Each one refers to the companies that receive the direct aid provided for in that same royal decree-law:

Rule	Article	End date of the prohibition	Who it refers to
Royal Decree-law 7/2026, of March 20	Article 62	June 30, 2026	Companies that benefit from the direct aid of RDL 7/2026
Royal Decree-law 18/2026, of June 29	Article 31	September 30, 2026	Companies that benefit from the direct aid of RDL 18/2026
Royal Decree-law 25/2026, of September 29	Article 36	December 31, 2026	Companies that benefit from the direct aid of RDL 25/2026

The content of the prohibition is the same in all three rules: what changes is the end date and the aid package it is tied to.

Which Companies Are Affected: the Direct Aid of RDL 25/2026

This is the key question, because the prohibition does not affect every company in Spain. It only binds those that receive some of the direct aid set out in Royal Decree-law 25/2026. These are:

• Agriculture: Article 25 extends until December 31, 2026 the aid for the diesel used by agricultural producers. For the period from October to December, the aid is up to 70% of the difference between the average weekly price of agricultural diesel and the price before the conflict, with a maximum of 0.2 euros per liter.
• Fishing: Article 27 extends until December 31, 2026 the compensatory aid for fishing vessel owners provided for in Article 51 of Royal Decree-law 7/2026.
• Road transport with professional diesel: Article 28 extends for October, November and December 2026 the aid for owners of vehicles entitled to the partial refund of the Hydrocarbons Tax on professional diesel, with 0.05 euros per liter in October, 0.12 in November and 0.19 in December (amounts that may fall if the tax rates change).
• Other road transport professionals: Article 30 creates aid for self-employed workers (autónomos) and road transport companies that cannot benefit from the professional diesel refund, such as holders of taxi (VT), VTC and other classes of authorization, or of urban buses. The activities included are, among others, urban public transport, taxis, passenger transport, ambulances, freight transport, loading and unloading, and removals.
• Rail freight: Article 33 sets up aid for rail freight companies with diesel locomotives, of 15,000 euros per locomotive.
• Maritime transport: Article 35 provides aid for regular passenger and cargo services between the mainland and the non-mainland territories, and between those territories.

If your company belongs to one of these sectors, that alone is not enough: what counts is that it is a beneficiary of some of this aid. The aid under Article 30 is managed by the Tax Agency (Agencia Tributaria), or by the regional tax authority in the Basque Country and Navarre, and the agricultural aid is deemed requested with the application for the refund of the tax on agricultural diesel, so workers do not always know whether their company receives it.

Which Dismissals Are Blocked and Which Are Not

Article 36 does not prohibit every dismissal. It blocks those that a beneficiary company seeks to justify on:

• Force majeure.
• Economic, technical, organizational or production grounds (the ones used in collective dismissal and in objective dismissal, Articles 51.1 and 52.c of the Workers’ Statute).

And only when those grounds arise from the crisis the rule responds to: for example, citing losses due to the higher cost of fuel. The rule does not mention other types of dismissal, such as disciplinary dismissal, which follow their usual rules. That said, if a company disguises as disciplinary a dismissal that is really a response to the crisis, the worker can challenge it and dispute what the real reason is.

Nor does the rule say that the company cannot dismiss on economic grounds that have nothing to do with the crisis in the Middle East. In practice, the line between one ground and the other will often be at the heart of the case, which is why the dismissal letter should be reviewed in detail.

Fixed-Discontinuous Workers and Cooperatives

Article 36 goes beyond the classic dismissal in two cases.

Fixed-Discontinuous Contracts

Under its paragraph 2, in fixed-discontinuous contracts (fijo discontinuo) those same grounds also do not justify, until December 31, 2026, the end of the period of activity or the failure to call workers back. This matters in sectors such as agriculture or seasonal transport, where the company might try not to call its staff back by citing the costs of the crisis. If you want to review how the call-back works, see our guide on the fixed-discontinuous contract, call-back and unemployment benefit.

Cooperatives

Paragraph 3 prevents the general assemblies of cooperatives from using the power in Article 85.1 of Law 27/1999 on Cooperatives to permanently reduce the number of jobs or change the proportion of professional qualifications on economic, technical, organizational or production grounds or on grounds of force majeure, also until December 31, 2026.

If the Company Breaches It: Null and Void Dismissal and Repayment of the Aid

The rule sets two consequences for a company that dismisses in breach of the prohibition:

• The dismissal is classified as null and void. Under Article 55.6 of the Workers’ Statute (Estatuto de los Trabajadores), a null and void dismissal results in the immediate reinstatement of the worker, with payment of the wages not received.
• The company must repay the aid received.

The difference from an unfair dismissal (despido improcedente) is significant: with a null and void dismissal there is no option to pay compensation and close the matter (that option exists for unfair dismissal, Article 56.1 of the Workers’ Statute); instead, the worker returns to their job and is paid what they did not receive. But nullity is not automatic: a court must declare it, and for that the dismissal has to be challenged in time.

The Sustainable Mobility Plan Also Counts

Article 37 adds another condition for beneficiary companies. If they meet the requirements of paragraph 1 of Article 26 of Law 9/2025 on Sustainable Mobility and do not have the sustainable workplace mobility plan that law requires, they must repay the aid received. We explain which companies are required to have one in our article on the sustainable workplace mobility plan.

Practical Example: Andrés Is Dismissed in November

Andrés is a driver at a road freight company. Every month the company applies for the professional diesel aid that Article 28 of Royal Decree-law 25/2026 extends for October, November and December. In mid-November 2026, Andrés receives a letter of objective dismissal on economic grounds: the company claims that the rise in the price of fuel since the conflict in the Middle East has sent its costs soaring.

In this case the three conditions of Article 36 are, in principle, met: the company is a beneficiary of direct aid under the royal decree-law, the dismissal is based on economic grounds and those grounds arise from the crisis the rule seeks to address. If Andrés challenges the dismissal in time and the court considers it proven, the dismissal will be null and void: the company will have to reinstate him and pay him the wages he did not receive, and it will also have to repay the aid.

If, on the other hand, Andrés lets the deadline pass without filing a claim, he loses the chance to have the dismissal declared null and void, even though the prohibition was in force.

What to Do If You Are Dismissed: 20 Working Days to File a Claim

The deadline is short and it is a strict time limit (caducidad): it is only interrupted by filing the conciliation request (papeleta de conciliación). Article 59.3 of the Workers’ Statute says that the action against a dismissal lapses twenty working days after the day it took place, and that this period is interrupted by filing the conciliation request with the public mediation, arbitration and conciliation service. An objective dismissal is challenged in the same way as a disciplinary one, under Article 53.3 of the same Statute.

If you receive a dismissal letter in these months, it is advisable to:

1. Note the date on which the dismissal takes effect and count 20 working days from that point.
2. Read which ground the company relies on and whether it mentions fuel, energy costs or the international situation.
3. Gather what you know about whether the company applies for diesel aid or belongs to one of the sectors that receive it.
4. File the conciliation request within the deadline, asking for the dismissal to be declared null and void.

If you are a foreign worker, do not let the deadline pass out of fear or doubts about your situation: the 20 working days run the same for everyone, and a dismissal challenged in time gives you the chance to get your job back. In the firm’s labor law practice, Fernanda Vargas, employment lawyer in Madrid, reviews the dismissal letter and prepares the claim within the deadline.

If you are a company receiving any of this aid, before considering an objective or collective dismissal until December 31, 2026, it is worth assessing whether the ground could be linked to the crisis, because the risk is twofold: a null and void dismissal and repayment of the aid.

What Remains to Be Clarified

• Companies that only received earlier aid. Each of the three royal decree-laws refers to the direct aid provided for in it. Royal Decree-law 25/2026 does not expressly say whether a company that received aid between March and September, but none from the new package, remains bound after September 30.
• How to prove that the ground arises from the crisis. The rule does not specify this, so the courts will decide case by case.
• What will happen in 2027. For now the end date is December 31, 2026. We will have to wait and see whether a new rule is approved.

Frequently Asked Questions

If you have been dismissed or want to know whether your company is affected by the extension, contact Fernanda Vargas on WhatsApp or book an appointment on Calendly and we will review your case before the deadline expires.