Law no. 13/2023, of 25 August, which approved the current Labour Law, introduced a series of changes to the legal regime previously in force, without, however, disrupting it, with a few exceptions such as the introduction of the concept of poly-employment.

In addition to the admissibility of an employment contract with multiple employers, i.e., the possibility of a worker entering into a single employment contract with several employers, provided that there is a corporate, control or group relationship among them, or that they share a common organisational structure, the law now includes the concept of poly-employment, which consists in the admissibility of a worker entering into more than one employment contract.

In fact, according to Article 27 of the Labour Law, “unless otherwise stipulated, an employee may enter into subordinate employment contracts with several employers”.

While the practical application of the poly-employment regime does not seem to present any difficulties in relation to national workers, whose hiring is not subject to constraints or limitations, its application to foreign workers raises a number of issues imposed by the legislation governing the hiring of foreign workers. As regards foreign workers, it is important to understand the effects of entering into multiple employment contracts, including regarding the need for/admissibility of multiple work permits, a concept used here in general terms to incorporate all forms of hiring of foreign workers.

In this respect, the Labour Law makes no distinction between national and foreign workers, which is why, in our opinion, it is acceptable to apply the poly-employment regime to the hiring of foreign workers.

However, the question then arises of whether each contract corresponds to a work permit or not. There are arguments to say yes, namely: on the one hand, the hiring of a foreign worker is always subject to the issue of an authorisation, the effectiveness of the contract being conditional on this authorisation; on the other hand, and with regard to the quota hiring regime, the subjection of each contract to a communication procedure is what will enable the prior verification of the availability or otherwise of the quota.

We are not informed of the position of the labour administration bodies in this regard, and we are not yet aware of any situation where this has been tested in practice. In any case, the arguments in favour are more compelling than the arguments against it, especially with regard to limiting the hiring of foreign workers.

While it is possible to argue that such admissibility could lead to more than one job vacancy being filled by the same foreign worker, which from a practical point of view is not that easy, except when considering companies in the same corporate group, it should be borne in mind that it would also have the effect of filling a place in the quota of the respective employers, thus preventing the hiring of more foreign workers for that already unavailable quota. At most, the effect would be neutral, offering both workers and companies more options and a better use of the available resources.