The Superior Court of Madrid (SCM) ruled on 16th November 2015 about the reduction of working hours. Usually, such change of the employment contract (the reduction of working hours) is accompanied by a proportional reduction of the employee’s salary due to the regulation. However, the SCM sets that, if the agreement between the Company and the employee does not set any provision regarding the reduction of the salary, the employee will be entitled to receive the same amount of money than before the reduction of working hours. This is because the agreement must be interpreted literally and, unless the reduction of the salary is established in the agreement between the Company and the employee, it cannot be assumed that the reduction of working hours also carries the consequent reduction of salary.
Therefore, it is of paramount importance that, in case of reduction of working hours, to set in the agreement between the Company and the employee the proportional reduction of the salary.