Labour Law (Spain, 1938)

LABOUR LAW (FUERO DEL TRABAJO) of 9th March, 1938 amended by the Organic Law of the State of 10th January, 1967

Following the Catholic tradition of social justice and the high sense of human values that informed the legislation of our glorious past, the State assumes the task of offering to every Spaniard the guarantee of a country, the means of survival and justice.

In order to achieve this aim — at the same time, fortifying the unity, the liberty and the greatness of Spain — it operates at the social level with the desire to place the wealth of the nation at the service of the Spanish people, subordinating the economy to the dignity of the human person, mindful of his material needs and the demands of his intellectual, moral, spiritual and religious life.

And in the light of its conception of Spain as a unit of destiny, it makes manifest, through the present declarations, its design that the produce of Spain, within the bonds of brotherhood that unite all its elements, should constitute a unit of service towards the strengthening of the country and for the common good of all Spaniards.

The Spanish State sets forth these declarations, which shall inspire her social and economy policy, under the precepts of justice and with the desire and determination that those who have laboured for the country constitute, by virtue of their honour, valour and work, the highest aristocracy of this national epoch. Before the Spanish people, irrevocably united in sacrifice and hope, we declare:

I
1. Work is the participation of man in production through the voluntary exercise of his intellectual and manual faculties, according to his particular vocation, in keeping with the decorum and comfort of his life, and for the better development of the national economy.

2. By virtue of its essentially personal and human nature, labour cannot be reduced to a material concept of merchandise, nor be the object of any transaction incompatible with the personal dignity of the worker.

3. The right to work is a consequence of the duty imposed on man by God, for the fulfilment of his individual aims and the prosperity and greatness of the country.

4. The State values and exalts labour, the fruitful expression of the creative spirit of man, and in this sense, shall protect it with the force of law, giving it the highest consideration and making it compatible with the fulfilment of the other individual, family and social ends of life.

5. Work, as a social duty, shall be demanded, in some form or another, of every able-bodied Spaniard, and shall be considered a compulsory tribute to the national patrimony.

6. Labour is one of the most noble attributes of hierarchy and honour, and is sufficient in itself to demand the assistance and protection of the State.

7. Service is work undertaken with heroism, disinterest or self-sacrifice, with a will to contribute to the higher good that Spain represents.

8. Every Spaniard has the right to work. The execution of this right is a fundamental issue of the State.

II
1. The State undertakes to employ constant and effective action in defence of the worker, his life and his work. It shall limit the length of the working day to a fixed number of hours, and shall extend to labour every guarantee of a defensive and humanitarian order. In particular, it shall prohibit the employment of women and children for night work, regulate work done at home and shall liberate the married woman from the workshop and the factory.

2. The State shall maintain that the observance of Sunday as a day of rest is a sacred condition of labour.

3. The laws shall make obligatory the observance of religious festivals and holidays proclaimed by the State, without loss of retribution, the technical necessities of the firms involved being taken into account.

4. The 18th July, marking the beginning of the Glorious Rising, now a national holiday, shall be considered as a Festival in honour of the Exaltation of Labour.

5. Every worker shall have a right to an annual paid vacation so that he may have a period of rest, and the institutions responsible for the fulfilment of this provision shall organize themselves accordingly.

6. The necessary institutions shall be created to give workers access to all the cultural, entertainment, military, health and sports facilities during their leisure hours.

III
1. Wages shall be the minimum necessary to enable the worker to lead a moral and honourable life.

2. A family allowance shall be established through the appropriate agencies.

3. The standard of living shall be raised gradually and rigidly for the workers, as allowed by the higher interest of the Nation.

4. The State shall fix the minimum bases for the Administration of labour, and the relations between the workers and the firms employing them shall be subject to these provisions. The prime considerations of such relations shall be the contribution of labour and remuneration therefor, as well as the relationships of the various components of the firm, based on justice, mutual loyalty and the subordination of economic values to those of a human and social order.

5. Through the Trade Union, the State shall seek to discover whether the economic and other conditions of work are in keeping with the just deserts of the worker.

6. The State shall ensure the safety and continuity of labour.

7. The commercial firm shall inform its staff of the progress of production to the degree necessary to stimulate their sense of responsibility, according to the terms established by law.

IV
Handicraft — the inheritance of a glorious past — shall be promoted and protected, being the result of the complete projection of the human person in his work and a type of production divorced from both the capitalist system of mass labour and Marxist gregariousness.

V
1. The standards of employment in the agricultural enterprise shall be adapted to its special characteristics and to the seasonal variations imposed by nature.

2. The State shall take a special interest in the technical education of the agricultural producer, training him to carry out all the activities required by each unit of exploitation.

3. The prices of principal products shall be controlled and re-assessed, in order to ensure a minimum profit under normal conditions for the agricultural entrepreneur and, in consequence, to demand for the workers wages that shall enable them to improve their living conditions.

4. Efforts shall be made to grant to each peasant family a small plot of land, which would contribute to their basic needs and keep them occupied during unemployment.

5. Plans shall be made for the embellishment of rural life, perfecting the rural dwelling and improving the sanitary conditions of the towns and villages of Spain.

6. The State shall ensure tenants of some stability in the cultivation of the land through long-term contracts, which shall protect them against unjustifiable eviction and shall secure for them the amortization of the improvements made by them on the land. It is the aim of the State to arbitrate through the appropriate channels so that, under fair conditions, the land may belong to those who work it.

VI
The State shall direct its greatest attention to maritime workers, providing them with adequate institutions to avoid the depreciation of their merchandise and to facilitate their access to the ownership of the articles necessary for carrying on their trade.

VII
A new Labour Magistrature shall be created based, on the principle that this function of justice belongs to the State.

VIII
1. Capital is an instrument of production.

2. The commercial firm, as a producing unit, shall dispose the elements within it in a hierarchy that subordinates instrumental factors to human factors, all towards the common good.

3. The management of the firm shall be responsible for its contribution to the common good of the national economy.

4. The profit of the firm, a fair interest on capital taken into account, shall be applied preferably to the formation of the reserves necessary for its stability, to the improvement of production, and to the betterment of the working and living conditions of the workers.

IX
1. Credit shall be so arranged that, besides fulfilling its purpose of developing national wealth, it shall contribute to the creation and maintenance of the small agricultural, fishing, industrial or commercial patrimony.

2. Integrity and trustworthiness, based on the competence and the work of the individual, shall be considered as effective guarantees for the granting of credit.

3. The State shall investigate all forms of usuary.

X
1. The social welfare authorities shall offer the worker the security of aid in misfortune.

2. There shall be an increase in social insurance for old age, incapacity, maternity, work accidents, ailments caused by profession, tuberculosis and unemployment, with a view to establishing a comprehensive insurance system. The granting of an adequate pension to aged workers shall receive prime consideration.

XI
1. National production is an economic unit in the service of the country. It is the duty of every Spaniard to protect, improve and increase it. All factors involved in production are subordinate to the supreme interests of the Nation.

2. Any illegal act, whether individual or collective, that seriously hinders production or attempts against it shall be punishable by law.

3. The fraudulent decrease of work output shall be subject to the appropriate penalties.

4. In general, the State shall only engage in business enterprise when private initiative is lacking, or when the higher interests of the Nation demands it.

5. The State, acting independently or through the Trade Unions, shall check all disloyal competition in the realms of production, as well as those activities that hamper the normal development of the national economy, and shall encourage, on the other hand, all efforts aimed at improving the national economy.

6. The State regards private initiative as the source of the economic life of the Nation.

XII
1. The State recognizes and protects private property as a natural means for the execution of individual, family and social functions. All forms of property are subordinate to the supreme interests of the Nation, whose interpreter is the State.

2. The State assumes the task of increasing and making accessible to all Spaniards the types of property vitally linked to the human person: the family home, the patrimony of land and the instruments or work implements needed for daily use.

3. The State recognizes the family as the natural nucleus and foundation of society, and at the same time, as the moral institution endowed with inalienable rights and superior to all positive law. For the greater security of its conservation and continuity, the unseizable family patrimony shall be recognized.

XIII
1. Spaniards, by virtue of their participation in labour and production, constitute the Trade Union Organization.

2. The Trade Union Organization is made up of a number of industrial, agrarian and public utility unions, with activities on a territorial and national scale covering all aspects of production.

3. The trade unions shall have the status of public corporations on a representative basis, with juridical standing and full functional capacity in their respective spheres of competence. Within these spheres, and in the manner legally established, shall be formed the associations of management, technicians and workers, organized for the defence of their particular interests, and as a free and representative medium of participation in trade union activities and, through the trade unions, in the community tasks of political, economic and social life.

4. The trade unions are the channel of professional and economic interests for the fulfilment of the ends of the national community, and are the representatives of said interests.

5. The trade unions collaborate in the study of production problems, and may propose solutions and intervene in the regulation, vigilance and implementation of working conditions.

6. The trade unions may create and maintain agencies of research, moral, cultural and professional training, welfare, aid and other activities of a social nature of interest to the participants of production.

7. Placement bureaux for finding employment, for the worker in accordance with his aptitude and merit shall be established.

8. It is the function of the trade unions to supply the State with precise data for the preparation of production statistics.

9. The Trade Union Law shall determine the manner of incorporating into the new organization the existing economic and professional associations.

XIV
The State shall dictate the appropriate measures for the protection of national labour within the territorial limits of the country and, by virtue of labour treaties with other governments, shall seek to protect the employment of Spanish workers resident abroad.

XV
At the time of promulgating this Charter, Spain is engaged in a heroic military task for the salvation of spiritual values and world culture, at the risk of losing a large share of her material resources.

National production, with all its elements, must respond unselfishly to the generosity of the militant youth of the Nation and of Spain herself.

For this reason, in this Charter of rights and duties, the most urgent consideration is that the productive elements should contribute equitably and resolutely to the renewal of Spanish soil and the foundations of its power.

XVI
The State undertakes to absorb the militant youth into the ranks of labour, honour or leadership, by virtue of their right as Spaniards and their conquest as heroes.