Last updated: 15 September 2026
Yes, people are employed in Spain for three month projects through an Employer of Record. What you cannot do is pick the contract type freely. Spanish law presumes that an employment contract is indefinite. A fixed term contract is lawful only on two narrow grounds, and the common one runs for six months at most, under Royal Decree-Law 32/2021 as published on the BOE. The length of your project does not decide the shape of the contract.
This catches employers out. Three months of work sounds like the textbook case for a short contract. In Spain it usually is not. What follows is the need to know version: why the rule is strict, what the routes actually are, and what to settle before anyone starts work.
Why a three month contract in Spain is not a free choice
Spain rewrote its rules on temporary work in 2021. The reform amended article 15 of the Estatuto de los Trabajadores, the Workers' Statute that sets the basic rules of employment in Spain. The starting point is now plain. A contract is presumed to be indefinite unless the employer can point to one of the permitted reasons for a temporary one.
There are two permitted reasons. The first is production circumstances, meaning a real and short lived rise in work that the normal team cannot absorb. The second is substitution, meaning you are covering a named person who is away, or holding a post while it is filled. A project that simply happens to last three months is not, on its own, either of those things.
Getting it wrong has a price. Where a temporary contract does not fit the rules, the worker is treated as employed on an indefinite basis from the start. Royal Decree-Law 32/2021 also made contract duration breaches count per affected worker and raised the amounts. That is why Spanish advisers are careful about short contracts in a way that can look excessive from outside.
What are the legal routes for a short engagement?
There are three realistic routes, and the right one turns on the nature of the work rather than on its length. You can employ the person on an indefinite contract. You can use a temporary contract if the work genuinely fits one of the two permitted grounds. Or the person can work as a contractor, if they really do run their own business.
Most short engagements in Spain end up on an indefinite contract, because the temporary grounds are narrow and the cost of stretching them is high. That feels odd when you only need someone for a quarter. It is normal here. An indefinite contract can still be ended, with notice and with severance where severance is due, so indefinite does not mean permanent in practice. Where the employment sits with an Employer of Record, the same Spanish rules apply: the EOR is the employer on paper, and Spanish law does not soften because the arrangement is short.
| Route | When it is used | What limits it | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indefinite contract | The default for almost all hiring, including short engagements | No time limit, but ending it needs a lawful reason, notice and any severance due | A planned end date that is not written down still shapes how the ending is judged |
| Temporary, production circumstances | A real, short lived rise in workload the existing team cannot absorb | Six months, which a collective agreement can extend to one year | A project of a fixed length is not automatically a production circumstance |
| Temporary, substitution | Covering a named absent employee, or holding a post during selection | Tied to the absence, and three months at most when covering a selection process | The person being covered has to be named, so this route rarely fits new work |
| Contractor | The person runs their own business and serves other clients | Judged on how the relationship works, not on the wording of the contract | Day to day direction, set hours and a single client point towards employment |
Read that table as a starting point, not as a decision. Which route is open to you depends on what the work is, who directs it, and what your Spanish sector collective agreement says, because those agreements can change the limits. The right answer depends on your situation. Talk to an Expert at Teamed to work through yours.
Can a probation period be used as the exit?
Probation exists so both sides can test whether the job and the person fit. Article 14 of the Workers' Statute caps it at six months for employees with a relevant degree and two months for other employees. In companies with fewer than 25 staff the cap for those other employees is three months. Where the contract itself runs for six months or less, probation cannot go beyond one month.
During probation, either side can end the contract without giving a reason. That is why people ask whether a probation period can simply be set to match a project and used as the way out. It is worth being clear about what the law is doing. Probation is built as a trial of suitability. It is not designed as a pre agreed end date, and a contract that is indefinite on paper but arranged around a known finish can be looked at differently after the event.
Whether any of that matters in your case depends on the detail: who set the end date, what the paperwork says, and how the engagement actually ends. Our page on probation and onboarding in Spain covers the mechanics. The judgement call is a conversation, not a lookup.
What a short engagement costs in Spain
Employer social security applies from the first day, whatever the contract length. The employer share of common contingencies alone is 23.60% of the contribution base, per the Seguridad Social. Unemployment, the wage guarantee fund, training and the intergenerational equity levy sit on top of that, so the true employer cost is higher again.
One detail is worth knowing. Unemployment contributions are charged at a higher rate on fixed term contracts than on indefinite ones, so the contract that looks cheaper is not always cheaper. Some contribution elements also vary with the type of work being done, which means a precise figure needs your real role and salary rather than an average. Our Spain hiring guide sets out the wider cost picture.
The other cost is the Employer of Record fee. Short engagements are priced case by case, so there is no useful headline number to put on a page. A short conversation gets you a figure built on your own dates, salary and role.
Would a contractor arrangement work instead?
Sometimes, but only where the person genuinely runs their own business. Spain looks at how the relationship works in practice, not at the label on the paperwork. If you set the hours, direct the work day to day, provide the tools, and the person has no other clients, an inspector is likely to see an employee rather than a supplier.
Getting that wrong is the expensive version of this problem, and the company carries the risk rather than the individual. It usually surfaces after the engagement has ended, which is the worst moment to find out. Our Spain misclassification page sets out what tips a contractor relationship into employment, and the Spain contractor guide covers how contractor arrangements are normally run.
Teamed acts as the Employer of Record in Spain and in 187+ countries, so the contract, the payroll and the Spanish filings sit with us rather than with you. A designated person will manage your account.