Waiving Employment Rights in Spain: Is Your Signature Valid? The short answer is: not always. And, when we are talking about minimum rights, your signature does not erase them.
If you signed an addendum, a clause or a document saying that you waive holidays, collectively agreed salary under the collective agreement [convenio] or overtime, do not assume you have lost your right. Before staying silent out of fear, review your case. You can write to Fernanda Vargas on WhatsApp or book an appointment on Calendly.
“Sign here, it’s standard”: the addendum Marta signed
Marta is 31 years old. She is Venezuelan, has residence and work authorization, and starts in January as a shop assistant in a clothing store in Valencia.
On the first day she is nervous. She wants to do well. They give her the contract and, together with the contract, an “addendum of conditions”. They tell her something many people have heard at some point: “sign here, it’s standard”.
Marta signs without reading it carefully. Not because she does not care. She signs because she needs to work, because she has just started and because she does not want to seem difficult.
The addendum says three things:
- “I waive holidays during my first year, because I am just starting”.
- “I accept a gross salary of €1,100 per month during my learning period”, even though the collective agreement [convenio colectivo] for her sector sets €1,300 for her category. These figures are only an example to understand the case.
- “Any extra hours I work will neither be paid nor compensated”.
Months go by. In peak season, Marta works about six hours of overtime per week. In September, after nine months of work, she asks for a week off in October.
Her manager opens the drawer, takes out the addendum and tells her: “You signed it yourself”.
That is where the question in this article begins: is that signature valid to take away her holidays, collectively agreed salary and overtime? The answer, in Marta’s case, is no. All three clauses are null and void.
The golden rule: your minimum rights cannot be signed away (art. 3.5)
Imagine that the law sets a floor. Not a ceiling. A minimum floor. Below that floor, the company and the employee cannot validly agree.
That is what happens with rights under mandatory law. Put simply: these are minimum standards imposed by law that nobody can reduce, even if the employee signs a document saying that they accept that reduction.
That is why Marta’s addendum does not work the way her manager thinks. Marta may have signed it. She may even have signed it voluntarily. But if what was signed affects minimum rights, that waiver does not remove the right.
“Workers may not validly dispose of, either before or after acquiring them, the rights recognised to them by mandatory legal provisions. Nor may they validly dispose of rights recognised as unavailable by collective agreement.”
Translated: you cannot validly lose a minimum right by signing a waiver. Neither before having that right nor after having accrued it.
This is important for people who work in retail, hospitality, cleaning, care work or any other sector where things are sometimes signed quickly, out of fear or with little information. A signature does not make legal a clause that reduces rights that the law or the collective agreement protects as minimum standards.
Law, collective agreement and contract: which prevails and why the contract cannot reduce the minimum
Let us go back to Marta. She has a contract. She also has a collective agreement [convenio colectivo] applicable to her sector and category. And, above that, there is employment law.
The contract can regulate many things. But it cannot be used to worsen what the law or the collective agreement already recognises. If the collective agreement says that, for that category, a salary of €1,300 applies in the example, the contract cannot reduce it to €1,100 by calling it “learning” if there is no legal arrangement allowing it.
“by the will of the parties, as expressed in the employment contract, its object being lawful and provided that under no circumstances may conditions be established to the detriment of the worker that are less favourable than or contrary to the aforementioned legal provisions and collective agreements.”
This means that the contract can be used to agree conditions, yes, but not to place the employee below the legal minimum standards or those of the collective agreement.
And what if several rules say different things? Then another key idea comes in: what is most favourable to the employee applies, always respecting the minimum standards of mandatory law.
“Conflicts arising between the provisions of two or more labour rules, whether state rules or agreed rules, which in all cases must respect the minimum standards of mandatory law, shall be resolved by applying what is most favourable to the worker, considered as a whole, and on an annual basis, with respect to quantifiable items.”
A simple example: if the law sets a minimum, the collective agreement improves that minimum and the contract tries to reduce it, the contract does not prevail in order to worsen things. In Marta’s case, the addendum cannot place itself above the collective agreement to pay her less for her category.
Clause 1: “I waive holidays”. Why it is not valid and how to request them now
The first clause in Marta’s addendum said that she waived holidays during her first year “because I am just starting”.
That kind of wording is intimidating. It seems clear. It seems there is nothing to discuss. But, when it comes to holidays, the minimum rule is different.
“The period of paid annual leave, which may not be replaced by financial compensation, shall be that agreed in the collective agreement or individual contract. In no case shall its duration be less than thirty calendar days.”
The simple explanation is this: paid annual leave exists and cannot be less than thirty calendar days. Also, while the contract is still ongoing, it is not exchanged for money. It must be taken.
In the first year, Marta does not have to wait magically until she has completed twelve months for everything to exist or not exist. Holidays accrue in proportion to the time worked. Using thirty days a year as a reference, that means approximately 2.5 calendar days for each month worked.
That is why, when Marta asks for a week off in October, the answer cannot simply be “you signed it”. The company can discuss dates with her. Normally, they are set by mutual agreement. But it cannot deny the whole right because of a written waiver in an addendum.
If there is no agreement on the dates, the law provides for the social courts to set the date of the leave in a fast-track procedure. In other words, this is not an endless discussion in which the company always has the last word.
In this article we are not going to go deeper into when untaken holidays may be lost, because that deserves a separate explanation. If that is your problem, you can read this guide on untaken holidays in Spain.
Clause 2: the “learning” salary. How much Marta can claim and until when
The second clause said that Marta accepted a gross monthly salary of €1,100 during her “learning period”. The collective agreement [convenio colectivo] for her sector, for her category, set €1,300. Remember: these are illustrative figures to understand the example, not a real salary table from a specific collective agreement.
Here the question is direct: can a company pay below the collective agreement because the person is learning?
With the information in this case, no. “Learning” is not a label that allows the company to ignore the collectively agreed salary. It would only make sense to talk about a training relationship if there were a training contract with its own rules. If there is no such training contract, the word “learning” cannot be used to pay less than what the collective agreement sets for the category.
In Marta’s example, the difference is about €200 gross per month. If nine months have passed, the approximate difference would be €1,800. That figure comes from the example, not from a universal claim. In each case, payslips, category, collective agreement and the months affected must be reviewed.
Now comes a very important part: it is not advisable to wait. Amounts must be claimed within one year from the date on which they should have been paid.
“If the action is brought to claim monetary payments or the performance of single-performance obligations that cannot take place after the contract has ended, the one-year period shall be counted from the day on which the action could have been brought.”
Put without technical language: each unpaid or underpaid monthly payment has its own timing. That is why, if you think you are being paid below the collective agreement, reviewing it promptly can make all the difference.
Clause 3: overtime that “will not be paid”. Payment or time off, and time recording
The third clause in Marta’s addendum was the clearest in appearance: any extra hours she worked would neither be paid nor compensated.
But that wording also clashes with the law. Overtime does not disappear because an addendum says it will be free.
“a choice shall be made between paying overtime at the rate established, which in no case may be less than the value of the ordinary hour, or compensating it with equivalent periods of paid rest. In the absence of agreement on this matter, it shall be understood that the overtime worked must be compensated by rest within the four months following when it was worked.”
The idea is simple: overtime must be paid or compensated with time off. If it is paid, it cannot be paid below the value of the ordinary hour. If there is no agreement, it is understood to be compensable with rest within the following four months.
In Marta’s case, she has worked about six hours of overtime per week in peak season. To claim it, it is not enough to say “I stayed longer”. Evidence must be gathered. And here a very important tool appears: the daily working time record.
The company must guarantee a daily working time record showing the specific start and end time of each employee, keep it for four years and make it available to the workforce, their representatives and the Labour Inspectorate [Inspección de Trabajo].
That record can serve as evidence. Messages with schedules, rotas, emails or any document showing when you started and when you left can also help.
Waiving is not the same as agreeing: agreements that are valid
This is also important for small businesses. Not every agreement with an employee is invalid. What is invalid is using an agreement to remove minimum rights or rights that the collective agreement declares unavailable.
Waiving means simply giving up a certain right. For example: “I know I am entitled to holidays, but I sign that I will not have them”. If that right is a minimum right, the waiver is not valid.
Agreeing, on the other hand, can be valid when it improves the minimum. For example, agreeing a condition more favourable than the law or the collective agreement.
An agreement reached in conciliation over a disputed amount can also be valid. This is called a settlement: both parties make concessions about something doubtful or disputed. It is not the same as simply signing a general waiver of minimum rights.
The key lies in the difference: you can negotiate over what is disputed and conditions can be improved; you cannot erase the minimum floor that the law or the collective agreement protects.
What if I claim and get dismissed? The protection against retaliation
This is Marta’s fear. And perhaps yours too: “if I claim, they will fire me”.
The law does not allow a company to punish an employee for claiming their rights. This protection is known as the protection against retaliation.
Simply explained: if the company takes action against you in retaliation for making a claim, including dismissal, that action may breach your right to effective judicial protection and may be declared null and void.
This does not mean that every dismissal after a claim is automatically null and void in every situation. It means that, if the dismissal or company measure is retaliation for making a claim, it can be challenged and you can ask for it to be declared null and void.
That is why it is advisable to do things in an orderly way: keep evidence, make your claim in writing and seek advice before taking important steps.
What to do if you already signed a waiver: practical steps
If you already signed something similar to what Marta signed, do not start by blaming yourself. Many people sign out of fear, necessity or because they are told it is a normal formality.
What matters now is to act carefully and with evidence.
- Keep a copy of everything you signed. Contract, addenda, communications and any document they gave you.
- Gather your payslips. They help compare what you were paid with what may be due under the collective agreement and your category.
- Find the applicable collective agreement. The collective agreement is key to knowing salary, category and other conditions.
- Ask for the working time record. The company must keep it. It can help you prove overtime.
- Keep messages with schedules. Rotas, emails, shift changes or written instructions can also be useful.
- Make your claim to the company in writing. It is better to leave a record of what you are asking for and from when.
- File a conciliation request. This is the prior step in most claims before the mediation, arbitration and conciliation service of the autonomous community.
- If there is no agreement, file a claim before the Social Court. There you can claim what is due.
- Consider reporting the matter to the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate [Inspección de Trabajo y Seguridad Social]. Depending on the case, this may be an alternative or a complement.
Do not stop working or sign a voluntary resignation as a form of pressure without first getting advice. A decision like that may harm you. Before taking action, review your specific situation.
In Marta’s case, the route would be to review the addendum, the collective agreement, the payslips and the working time record. With that, she can claim holidays, salary differences and overtime paid or compensated with time off.
Summary: can you waive them? Quick table
| Common situation | Can it be waived? | Key idea |
|---|---|---|
| Annual holidays | No, if the aim is to eliminate or reduce the minimum. | There is a minimum of thirty calendar days and, while the contract is still ongoing, they are not replaced by money. |
| Collectively agreed salary | No, if the contract or addendum sets less for the category. | The contract cannot worsen what the applicable collective agreement provides. |
| Overtime | No, if the aim is to make it unpaid. | It must be paid or compensated with time off according to the applicable rules. |
| Weekly rest | No, if the aim is to remove it or reduce it below the minimum. | The law sets a minimum of a day and a half of uninterrupted rest per week (Art. 37.1), which can be accumulated over periods of up to fourteen days; an addendum cannot remove it. |
| Agreed improvements | Yes, when they improve the minimum. | Conditions more favourable to the employee can always be agreed. |
| Agreement in conciliation | Yes, if it is a settlement about a doubtful or disputed amount. | Negotiating a disputed amount is not the same as simply waiving a minimum right. |
Marta’s story ends like this: the three clauses in the addendum are null and void. Marta keeps her right to holidays accrued proportionally during the first year. She can claim the difference between what she was paid and the collectively agreed salary in the example. And the overtime worked must be paid or compensated with time off, using the working time record and other available evidence.
Most importantly: making a claim should not cost her her job. If the company dismisses her in retaliation for making a claim, that dismissal may be declared null and void.
If you signed something similar, do not assume that there is nothing you can do anymore. You can contact Fernanda Vargas on WhatsApp or book a consultation on Calendly to review your case carefully.
Frequently Asked Questions
If I signed it voluntarily, is it still not valid?
It depends on what you signed. If you signed a waiver of minimum mandatory-law rights, or of rights that the collective agreement declares unavailable, that waiver is not valid even if you signed it voluntarily. The right still exists and can be claimed.
A different matter is a valid agreement about a disputed amount or an improvement of conditions. That is why the specific document has to be read.
Can they pay me for holidays instead of me taking them?
While the contract is still ongoing, no. Paid annual leave is not replaced by financial compensation. It must be taken. It can only be paid in money when the contract ends without the leave having been taken, as part of the final settlement.
Can I claim while I still work there?
Yes. You can make a claim while still working for the company. Also, if the company retaliates for that claim, including with a dismissal, that measure may breach the protection against retaliation and may be declared null and void.
It is advisable to do it with evidence and in writing, and to receive advice before taking important steps.
How long do I have to claim what I was not paid?
Amounts must be claimed within one year from the date on which they should have been paid. That is why it is not advisable to wait. In underpaid salary cases, each monthly payment must be reviewed according to the moment when it could have been claimed.
What agreements with my company are valid?
Agreements that improve the legal or collectively agreed minimum standards are valid. An agreement in conciliation about a doubtful or disputed amount can also be valid, because it is not simply a waiver, but a settlement with mutual concessions.
It is not valid to use a contract, addendum or private document to reduce minimum rights, such as holidays, collectively agreed salary or overtime that must be paid or compensated.