Crimes Against Workers' Rights: Legal Guide 2026

The Criminal Code protects the worker not only as an individual but as the holder of inalienable employment rights. Crimes against workers' rights (Arts. 311 et seq.) punish serious conduct of exploitation and endangerment, and are distinguished from mere administrative infringements by the seriousness of the attack on workplace safety and dignity. Our criminal lawyers experienced in crimes against workers' rights in Madrid can help you with this type of situation.

Labour Exploitation and Fraud

Article 311 punishes with prison sentences of six months to six years those who, through deception or by abusing a situation of need, impose on workers employment conditions that harm, suppress or restrict the rights recognised for them by legal provisions, collective agreements or an individual contract. This includes endless shifts with no rest, wages below the subsistence minimum, or the wholesale failure to register workers with the Social Security system.

Trafficking for the Purpose of Labour Exploitation

In extreme cases, labour exploitation crosses the line into Human Trafficking (Art. 177 bis). Where people are recruited, transported or housed using violence, deception or an abuse of vulnerability with the purpose of exploiting them through their labour (conditions of near-slavery), the penalty rises sharply to 5 to 8 years in prison. This offence protects human dignity itself, not only employment rights.

Crimes Against Safety and Health (Art. 316 CP)

This is the flagship offence in workplace accidents. Art. 316 CP punishes those who, being under an obligation to do so, fail to provide the safety measures necessary for workers to carry out their activity with adequate hygiene and safety standards, thereby placing their life or physical integrity in serious danger. It is an endangerment offence: an accident does not need to occur for there to be a conviction; it is enough to create the serious risk.

Defence Strategies

Faced with a charge for these offences, the defence must evidence compliance with the Occupational Risk Prevention Plan. Documentary evidence is vital (training records, the issuing of personal protective equipment), as is a safety expert report to show that the risk was not created by the company, but perhaps by the worker's own reckless conduct or by an unforeseeable cause.