SPAIN Law and Practice Contributed by: José Antonio Segovia, A&O Shearman
9.2 Alternative Dispute Resolution Collective matters are subject to a compulsory media - tion process. If that ends without agreement, the par - ties may expressly agree to submit the collective case to arbitration as an alternative to the judicial process. Pre-dispute arbitration agreements are not enforce - able in Spain. 9.3 Costs Under Spanish employment law, employees are ben - eficiaries of so-called “free justice”; they are entitled to an appointed lawyer, free of charge. In view of this, there can be no award of legal fees. A judgment may impose costs on the prevailing party in an appeal, except where the party enjoys the benefit of free justice or in the case of unions or public officials or statutory personnel. Such costs shall include the fees of the lawyer of the opposing party that had acted in the appeal with a maximum of EUR1,200 in the appeal phase before the superior court and EUR1,800 in the appeal phase before the Supreme Court. The above does not apply in cases involving collective conflict; each party is responsible for its own costs. However, the court may impose the payment of costs on any party that has acted with recklessness or bad faith.
which contained the Agreement of the Council of Min - isters declaring the end of the health crisis situation caused by COVID-19.
9. Dispute Resolution 9.1 Litigation
Judicial proceedings related to employment deal with several areas of conflict. These include ordinary dis - missals, collective conflicts, the breach of fundamen - tal rights, holidays, workers’ representative elections, professional classifications, amendment of working conditions, geographical mobility and social security. Depending on the geographical scope of the claim and/or the number of employees impacted, different competent courts deal with the matters raised. • Labour courts of first and unique instance – these courts resolve individual and social security claims. • Superior courts (one per autonomous community) – these courts resolve appeals filed against judg - ments of the labour courts as well as certain col - lective conflicts in the first instance phase. • National Audience – this Audience hears, at first instance, collective conflicts that affect employees based in more than one autonomous community. • Supreme Court – the Supreme Court resolves appeals filed against judgments of the supe - rior courts and the National Audience, and even judgments issued by the Supreme Court at first instance. Prior to the filing of a judicial claim, there is a general requirement to file a claim for conciliation (some mat - ters are excluded from this preliminary conciliation hearing).
608 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook