The Organic Law on Persons with Disabilities was published in the Fourth Supplement of Official Gazette No. 73 on July 3, 2025. It repeals the Organic Law on Disabilities, published in the Supplement to Official Gazette No. 796 of September 25, 2012.
Below, we present the main changes in employment matters:
Employment rights:
- Hiring people with disabilities:Employers with 25 or more employees are still required to hire a minimum of 4% of people with disabilities. It is established that the principles of gender equality and diversity of disabilities must be applied.
- Territorial distribution:The percentage of disability must be distributed equally across the different provinces and cantons where the employer has economic activity.
- Full working hours: People with disabilities must be hired for full working hours (8 hours). Only when the person with a disability is unable to work full-time due to their condition, may they be hired on a permanent part-time basis; this will require the respective medical certificate.
- Teleworking:Persons with disabilities who are pursuing postgraduate study may be eligible for teleworking.
- Percentage of substitutes:The percentage by which the disability quota can be met with substitutes is reduced to 25%.
- Job stability:Special compensation of 18 months' pay for unjustified dismissals of persons with disabilities is maintained.
- Reinstatement:In addition to compensation, the regulation establishes the obligation to immediately reinstate the dismissed disabled person in their job, if they so wish.
- Medical leave for treatment: Persons with disabilities will be entitled to leave for treatment and rehabilitation.
- Extension of maternity leave:Maternity leave will be extended by an additional three months in the case of the birth of children with disabilities or serious congenital conditions.
- Leave for caregivers: The right to two hours of leave per day for the care of persons with severe, very severe, or complete disabilities is maintained for workers on a regular eight-hour workday.
- Transfer of medical leave:It is established that medical leave granted to a child or adolescent with a disability will be transferred to the person acting as a substitute who has them under their care when they require special care.
- Penalty for non-compliance: In cases of non-compliance with the employment inclusion percentage, a penalty of between eleven and fifteen consolidated basic salaries or suspension of activities for up to thirty days may be imposed.
General Provisions
The law protects persons with disabilities, their relatives, their substitutes, and their caregivers. According to the regulation, the following definitions shall apply:
- Person with a disability: A person who has alterations in their physical, mental, intellectual, sensory, or psychosocial structure or functions and limitations in performing one or more essential activities of independent and autonomous daily life. The person with a disability must be certified by the governing body of the National Health System.
- Direct substitutes:Relatives up to the fourth degree of consanguinity and second degree of affinity, spouse, common-law partner, legal representative or attorney-in-fact, or anyone responsible for the maintenance or care of a person with a severe, very severe, or complete disability. The parents or legal representatives of children or adolescents with disabilities, regardless of the type or percentage of disability, shall also be considered as direct substitutes.
The status of substitute shall not be granted to anyone who owes alimony to the person with a disability. Anyone who receives financial assistance from the State cannot be certified as a substitute for a person with a disability.
- Substitute for human solidarity: Anyone who is responsible for the care of a person with a very severe or complete disability, who is not related by blood or marriage, and who has no family mentor.
- Caregiver: Mother, father, legal representative or guardian who is authorized to care for a person with a severe, very severe, or complete disability. The Ministry of Labor is responsible for certifying the status of caregivers.
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