Indefinite contract

The Indefinite contract, Until recently, it was the "holy grail" of many employees. Having job stability, knowing that you will not be fired (unless you do something very wrong) and not having to worry about anything was the dream of many.

Now, people want to change jobs from time to time, so as not to burn out. Even so, there are many who still yearn for this type of contract, but what does it consist of? What are its benefits? Are there several types? We will tell you all this and much more below.

What is the permanent contract

Post 15.1 of the Employees Statute (ET) defines the duration of the contract that "The employment contract may be concluded for an indefinite time or for a specified duration". Therefore, a precise term of indefinite contract is one that defines an employment relationship between two people (or person and company), called worker and employer, which does not have a fixed duration in time, but the agreed conditions are in force, if nothing happens, "permanently".

This type of contract does not have to be only in writing, in addition verbal contracts are accepted. At the same time, they grant benefits to many companies as long as they meet the requirements that are demanded of them.

Benefits of a permanent contract

A permanent contract has many benefits, not only for the employees, but also for the companies themselves. Actually, the most important are the following:

• Loyalty talent. Not only is the worker "valued", but he is "tied" in some way to the company to make him feel important. With this, you also manage to improve productivity.
• Stability. The worker is calmer because he knows that he is fixed and that it is difficult for him to lose his job (even when it is not impossible).
• Redundancy payment. Since, if you lose your job for any reason that does not cancel the severance pay, this is greater than in other types of contracts. We speak of between 33 days per year worked or 20 days per year of work (it will depend on the type of dismissal that occurs at that time).
• Bonuses for the company. Since, when formalizing this type of employment relationship, as long as you meet the conditions, you can opt for tax benefits.

Types of permanent contract

As a general rule, the best known permanent contracts are those that do not have an end date. However, within them, there are different modalities that could be interesting to know.

Indefinite full-time contract

It is the usual contract for an indefinite duration, with 8 hour day, In other words, complete, where the activities and tasks to be carried out are established.

Long-term remote employees

In this case, and taking into account many situations, it may be the case that an employee wants to request an indefinite distance contract, mainly for the reconciliation of family and work life (for the care of a child, a relative, etc.).

Indefinite part-time contract

Similar to a permanent full-time contract, only, instead of being a full day, in other words, 8 hours, it is partial, approximately 4 hours.

At the time of the calculation, it is necessary to pay attention that the Social Security usually counts full days so, every two days, it would be a day worked for labor procedures (INEM, SAE, SEPE), or for Security.

Indefinite fixed discontinuous

This type of permanent contract is used for those people who provide a service during a regular period throughout the year. As an example, when collecting in the field. When that worker is permanent, but does not work all year, the labor figure that protects him is this type of contract.

When does a contract become permanent?

The first thing you should know is that any type of contract can be turned into an indefinite contract. Minus the permanent contract itself, anyway. In reality, it is the dream of many workers who like the company they work for and want to have something more "durable".

Sometimes, when an infringement or fraud of the law is committed, the contract automatically becomes indefinite. This can occur, for example, when an employee is not registered with Social Security and has completed the fixed trial period; or when a written contract has not been formalized (as long as the regulations so require). Likewise, it can happen in the event that there is a temporary contract, or for work and service, that takes a long time (you will remember how the actor in the movie Mortadelo y Filemón managed to make his temporary contract indefinite).

At the same time of those infringement cases, a contract can become indefinite when it is agreed between the company and the worker.

Bonuses for approving an indefinite contract

We are going to clarify the benefits that have been previously discussed since, as an incentive for companies to hire their employees indefinitely, some interesting bonuses were developed. As an example:

• In case of temporary contract that becomes indefinite, the bonus can range from € 500 to € 1,800 per year for a period of 3 years. At the same time, there is also a bonus for 4 years of 650 euros in Social Security contributions (as long as the worker meets the requirements to enter this bonus).
• In case of People with disabilities, the bonus can range between 4,500 and 6,300 euros per year.
• If they are victims of gender violence or terrorism, the bonus will be 1,500 euros per year for a period of 4 years. In the case of gender violence, the amount drops to 850 euros, but remains the same duration, 4 years.
• In the case of self-employed who contract in the form of relatives for an indefinite contract up to the 2nd degree of consanguinity, later for one year they will have covered 100% of the business quota for common contingencies.