Many recruiters working in the Spanish market for the first time assume that, as in some other European countries, there is a legal obligation to issue a qualitative employment reference when an employment relationship ends. In Spain, that assumption is incorrect, and understanding this changes how the entire reference-verification process should be designed.

The only legal obligation: the company certificate

The company certificate, governed by Article 298 of the General Social Security Act (consolidated text approved by Royal Legislative Decree 8/2015) and further regulated by Royal Decree 625/1985 and the Certific@2 electronic communication system, is the only document the employer is legally required to provide when the employment relationship ends. It is a purely objective document: it records the employment start and end dates, type of contract, contribution group, contribution bases for the last 180 days and the reason for termination.

What it is for — and what it is not for

Its purpose is to allow the employee to demonstrate their legal unemployment status to the State Public Employment Service (SEPE) in order to apply for the corresponding benefit. It does not contain, and is not intended to contain, any assessment of the employee’s performance, conduct or competencies.

There is no Spanish equivalent of a qualitative written employment reference

Unlike countries where the law requires a formal employment reference with language carefully balanced between benevolence and accuracy, Spain has neither that legal tradition nor a culture of “coded language” in reference documents. The so-called “letters of recommendation” that do circulate in the Spanish market are voluntary courtesy documents with no legally prescribed form or content; in fact, many employers simply choose not to issue them.

The practical consequence for HR

Because the company certificate provides no qualitative information, the telephone reference conversation — always with prior consent, as explained in the dedicated article — becomes the most important, and often the only, tool in the Spanish market for validating a candidate’s actual performance. Designing a recruitment process that relies only on written documents, without this direct conversation, leaves an information gap that in other European markets would be covered by a written reference.

See also: Human Risk and Background Checks in Spain: The 2026 Reference Guide and Employment References in Spain: Why You Need the Candidate’s Consent