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Spanish seasonal work calculator

Your seniority counts the whole relationship and your benefit only the contributions. See both figures and what the gap is worth.

Article 16.6 of the Workers' Statute counts the whole relationship, not the months worked.
Seniority (art. 16.6)
6 years
If only work counted
3 years
What 16.6 adds
36 months
The two seniority counts, month by month.
Months of employment relationship72 months
Months actually worked36 months
Difference36 months
  • Article 16.6 carries an express carve-out: it does not reach conditions «that require different treatment given their nature». Severance is counted over the whole relationship; other seniority-linked conditions may not be.
  • Where the contract is justified by a service contract, article 16.4 allows inactivity only as a waiting period between subcontracts, capped at three months absent a collective agreement.

Educational estimate. Not employment advice.

Video: how to use the calculator

1

Two opposite rules over the same calendar

Article 16.6 of the Spanish Workers’ Statute says seniority is calculated "taking into account the whole duration of the employment relationship and not the time of service actually rendered". Article 269.1 of the Social Security Act makes your unemployment benefit depend on "periods of contributed occupation in the previous six years", and you only contribute while working. It is the same calendar counted two incompatible ways: for severance the gaps count, and for the benefit they do not.

2

What article 16.6 is worth in severance

Severance is paid per year of service: 20 days for an objective dismissal (article 53.1.b) and 33 for an unfair one (article 56.1). If your seniority is the years of relationship rather than the months worked, the figure changes in the same proportion as the inactivity. On six-month seasons, counting the whole relationship doubles the severance, and this calculator puts both figures side by side so you can see where the difference comes from.

3

The ceiling your season puts on the benefit

The article 269.1 window is six years, so the most you can contribute inside it is six seasons. With the thirty-days-per-month convention and 180-day bands, the result is exact and surprisingly simple: every month of your annual season is worth sixty days of benefit, and nothing else moves that ceiling. Twelve years of contract give the same as six. And with a single month of season per year you never reach the 360 contributed days the scale requires, so there is no contributory benefit at all.

4

What this calculator does not do

It does not read your contribution record: the contribution days are an estimate of thirty per month of activity, which is the convention for monthly contribution bases, and the authoritative figure is on your working-life report. It assumes full-time work during the season, because for part-time permanent seasonal work article 269.2 defers to a regulatory coefficient. And it does not apply the 45-days-per-year tranche for service before 12 February 2012, so if your relationship started before that date the severance shown is understated.

Worked example

Six years of relationship with six-month seasons and a gross annual season salary of €21,000. Your seniority is 6 years, not 3: article 16.6 adds 36 months over the other count. In an unfair dismissal that is 198 days of severance instead of 99, so €11,391.78 instead of €5,695.89, and the €5,695.89 gap is exactly what that article is worth. For the benefit the rule inverts: 36 contributed months are 1,080 days, which give 360 days of benefit rather than the 720 the same calendar worked continuously would give. And 360 is already your ceiling, because six season months times sixty days is 360: twelve years of contract would not add a single day.

Frequently asked questions

Does my seniority count the months I do not work?
Yes. The second paragraph of article 16.6 of the Workers’ Statute says permanent seasonal workers "have the right to have their seniority calculated taking into account the whole duration of the employment relationship and not the time of service actually rendered". The rule arrived with the royal decree-law 32/2021 reform and has been in force since 30 March 2022. It carries an express carve-out: it does not reach conditions "that require different treatment given their nature".
Can I claim unemployment benefit between call-ups?
Yes, and in its own right. Article 267.1.d) of the Social Security Act gives its own letter to the "periods of productive inactivity of permanent seasonal workers". It is not tucked inside the suspension of the contract or the reduction of hours: the contract is not terminated, not suspended and not reduced, and the law gives the case a separate entry. Compare a leave of absence, which appears in none of that article’s letters.
Why does my benefit not rise even after years at the company?
Because article 269.1 looks only at the previous six years. Inside that window you can accumulate at most six seasons, so your benefit has a ceiling that depends on the season length and on nothing else: sixty days of benefit for every month you work per year. With a six-month season the ceiling is 360 days, half the legal maximum of 720, and you reach it after six years of contract. After that, time stops counting.
How much does counting the whole relationship change the severance?
It changes in the same proportion as the inactivity. If you work six months a year, counting the whole relationship doubles the days of severance; if you work nine, it adds a third. On a €21,000 annual salary and six years of relationship with six-month seasons, an unfair dismissal goes from €5,695.89 to €11,391.78.
Can I be a permanent seasonal worker if my job always starts on the same date?
Yes, and that is new. The previous wording of article 16.1 sent "discontinuous work repeating on certain dates" to the indefinite part-time contract, so fixed-date work was not permanent seasonal. The wording in force since 2022 covers work "which, being of intermittent performance, has certain, determined or undetermined periods of execution". The reform absorbed the fixed-date case.
How must the company call me back?
In writing, or by another means that leaves a record of the notification, with "adequate notice" and with the precise conditions of your return, under article 16.3. The criteria for the order of call-up are set by the collective agreement or, failing that, a company agreement. And the company must give the workers’ legal representation, at the start of each calendar year, a calendar of the expected call-ups.
How long can my inactivity last?
Article 16 sets no general maximum, but it sets one for a specific case. Where the contract is justified by service contracts, subcontracts or administrative concessions, article 16.4 says inactivity "may only occur as waiting periods for redeployment between subcontracts", and that absent a provision in the collective agreement that maximum is three months. Once the period has elapsed, the company must take the measures that apply.
Can I move to an ordinary permanent post?
You can ask, and the company must give you the information to do so. Article 16.7 requires it to inform permanent seasonal workers and the legal representation of vacancies for ordinary permanent posts, so that they can apply for voluntary conversion under the procedure set by the sectoral collective agreement or the company agreement.

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Author: Thorben Rasmus Idel · Reviewed by: Nahar Geva · Last reviewed: