Disciplinary regime: without it, your compliance model has no teeth

Contents

• What is the disciplinary regime in compliance?
• Why does art. 31 bis require it?
• How does it connect with the Estatuto de los Trabajadores?
• What must it contain?
• What happens if you don't have it?
• How Tranquilia generates it
• Frequently asked questions
• Official sources

What is the disciplinary regime in compliance?

It is the part of the model that answers an uncomfortable but necessary question: what if someone breaks the rules? The disciplinary regime defines what counts as a breach of the compliance model, how it is graded (minor, serious, very serious) and what penalty corresponds to it, always respecting the worker's rights.

It is what turns the code of ethics into something real: without consequences, rules are optional, and a model of optional rules protects nobody.

Why does art. 31 bis require it?

Because the Código Penal, when listing the requirements of an effective crime prevention model, expressly includes establishing a disciplinary system that adequately penalises failure to comply with the measures of the model. It is not an ornament: it is one of the elements a judge will check in order to decide whether the model was serious or was only for show.

A model with a risk map and a code of ethics, but with no disciplinary regime, has a hole in exactly the piece that shows the company takes its own rules seriously.

How does it connect with the Estatuto de los Trabajadores?

The compliance disciplinary regime does not float in mid-air: it rests on the employment relationship. The Estatuto de los Trabajadores governs breaches and penalties (art. 58) and the grounds for disciplinary dismissal (art. 54), normally developed by the collective agreement.

That is why the model's disciplinary regime has to fit with what employment law and the collective agreement allow: you cannot invent penalties that the law does not support. Done well, compliance and the employment framework speak the same language.

What must it contain?

A disciplinary regime that is useful for compliance sets out:

1. Which conduct constitutes a breach of the model (by referring to the code of ethics).
2. The grading of breaches: minor, serious and very serious.
3. The penalties available for each level, within what the law and the collective agreement allow.
4. A procedure with safeguards: a hearing for the person, time limits, proportionality.
5. The guarantee of no reprisals against anyone who reports in good faith.

What happens if you don't have it?

The disciplinary regime is not a document the authorities fine you for not having. The effect is the same as with the rest of the model: without it, compliance fails to meet an express requirement of art. 31 bis and loses its effectiveness as a shield. If an offence is committed and your model did not provide for consequences for those who breach the rules, it will be hard to maintain that it was adequate.

Put plainly: not having it does not cost you a direct penalty, but it leaves your model lame at exactly the point that shows the rules were meant seriously.

How Tranquilia generates it

Tranquilia prepares the disciplinary regime connected to the code of ethics and to the employment framework, with the grading of breaches and the procedure with safeguards already set out, so that you can review it with your asesoría laboral (the firm that advises you on employment matters). That way the model is complete and coherent, not a sum of loose pieces.

Frequently asked questions

Does the compliance disciplinary regime replace the one in the collective agreement?

No. It rests on the Estatuto de los Trabajadores and on the collective agreement; it does not replace them. What it does is connect breaches of the model's rules with the system of breaches and penalties that employment law already allows.

Can I dismiss someone for breaking the code of ethics?

It depends on the seriousness and on whether it fits the grounds and the procedure set out by employment law and the collective agreement. The model's disciplinary regime has to respect those limits: it does not create new grounds for dismissal on its own.

Is it suitable for a small company?

Yes. In an SME it can be brief, but it has to exist and be applied. Precisely in small companies, where the governing body usually takes on the monitoring role, having the consequences clearly in writing gives the model seriousness.

Official sources

• BOE — Código Penal (LO 10/1995), article 31 bis.
• BOE — Estatuto de los Trabajadores (RDL 2/2015), articles 54 and 58.
• Fiscalía General del Estado.

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General information about the rules. It does not replace a lawyer's advice or an analysis of your specific case. If you have any doubts, check with a criminal law or compliance professional.