Malaga employment: dismissals during probation period shoot up by 120% with labour reform

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More than 45,000 permanent contracts were terminated during the probation period in the province in 2024, although the increase might be due to some companies abusing the reform to emulate temporary contracts

Nuria Triguero

Málaga

Tuesday, 24 February 2026, 11:24

The labour reform from 2021 sought to reduce temporary employment by making permanent contracts the norm in Spain. This condition, however, has not stopped employers from finding a legal loophole: dismissing workers before the end of their probation period to avoid sanctions. In Malaga province, such dismissals have shot up by almost 120% between 2021 and 2024.

Since 2021, eight out of every ten workers in Malaga have permanent contracts, compared to under 60% previously. Despite this improvement in conditions, Malaga is the fourth province with the highest growth in probation dismissals, after Santa Cruz, Las Palmas and the Balearic Islands.

In 2021, 20,568 Malaga workers were dismissed during their probation period. The number more than doubled in 2024 (45,143). To compare, the total number of all types of dismissals between 2021 and 2024 in Malaga province was under 11%.

At national level, the increase was also significant (80.7%), but lower than in Malaga. From January to November 2025, 37,337 people in the province had to leave their permanent contracts during the probation period, which shows that the upward trend continues.

Probation dismissals in the four provinces where this practice is most common could be attributed to the seasonal nature of their economy, with high peaks of employment during tourist seasons.

No notice or compensation

The workers' statute regulates dismissal on probation. It states that there are a number of months (a maximum of six in the case of qualified professionals, two for other workers and three in the case of companies with fewer than 25 employees) from the signing of a permanent contract in which both the company and the worker can terminate the employment relationship without notice or compensation.

This period aims to give both parties time to assess whether the employment relationship meets their expectations. For the employer, it serves to analyse whether the worker has the competences and skills required for the position, and for the employee, it allows them to assess whether the working conditions are adequate and whether the position meets their interests.

Salvador Ruiz Menacho is a specialist in labour law, founder of RM Abogados Laboralistas and partner at Andersen. According to him, the rise in probation dismissals makes sense, given that, previously, temporary contracts were used to test new employees and now employers have to hire them as permanent employees without knowing them.

However, the lawyer also admits that there are companies that, "perhaps due to ignorance of labour regulations", abuse this dismissal practice. "We warn our clients. We tell them: be careful with this practice, because plural terminations during the trial period can lead the labour inspectorate to presume that this dismissal is fraudulently used to emulate temporary hiring," Ruiz Menacho says.

He advises employers to "always provide a reason in writing" as to why the probation period has not ended, even if the workers' statute does not expressly require it. "The abuse of this practice can lead the courts, through case law, to ultimately transform an acausal dismissal into an obligation to justify why the worker has not passed the probationary period," he says.

Cristóbal García, partner in Garrigues' employment department in Malaga, says that even if a dismissal takes place within the probation period, it can be declared null and void by a judge if it is proven that the cause of the dismissal is based on discrimination against the worker (due to serious illness, disability, race, gender, religion or sexual orientation), violates their fundamental rights or is based on one of the objective grounds for nullity, such as pregnancy or maternity.

Disciplinary dismissals and voluntary redundancies also soar in the new employment environment

Dismissals during the probation period are not the only ones that have increased dramatically in the new employment environment. Disciplinary dismissals have increased even more, by 143% in Malaga province in three years, to almost 25,000 in 2024. Voluntary dismissals (which correspond to workers who terminate their employment contract of their own accord) have also risen sharply: by 74.6% in three years, to 108,484 in 2024.

Why are disciplinary dismissals and voluntary redundancies on the rise? Salvador Ruiz Menacho says: "We are in a time of high staff turnover in sectors such as hospitality, cleaning and auxiliary services. It is common for workers to leave their jobs from one day to the next. The correct way to do this is for them to voluntarily resign, which is why there has been an increase in this type of contract termination. But when they do not do so, but simply stop going to work, the best way for the company to proceed is to require the employee to appear or to present a medical leave of absence, via Burofax. On the third request, the employee can be dismissed on disciplinary grounds."

Cristóbal García suspects that companies are avoiding collective redundancies (Ere), which the labour reform has made "much more difficult in terms of cost and processing". Instead, employers are making individual redundancies, but this "involves risks", as there are times when, "due to the number of redundancies, it is clear that there is a restructuring and the workers' representatives are demanding that an Ere be presented".

In recent years, there has also been a significant increase in the number of null and void dismissals, due to the fact that law 15/2022 and other more recent regulations have sought to protect workers on medical leave, with reduced working hours for work-life balance or health leave. The nullity of a dismissal implies reinstatement and payment of wages for processing. It must be declared by a judge, following a complaint by the worker.

Labour lawyer for the CC OO trade union Eduardo Alarcón says that there is an issue that stops many workers from filing claims of nullity or unfairness: the excessive delay in the social courts in Malaga. "Many people give up because they can't afford to spend more than a year waiting for compensation," he says.