Spain's Royal Decree 723/2026 requires employers to inform each worker in writing of the algorithmic or automated systems that take decisions in their employment relationship. Knowing that it has to be done is the easy part. This guide covers the hard one: what to write, for whom, when to deliver it and how to prove it was delivered.
There is no text to copy. The information has to describe each employer's own systems, which is why nobody can write it on their behalf. What follows is an outline to organise the work, not an official template and not proof that the information is sufficient.
The Royal Decree is Spanish law and has no official English version: where this guide describes its provisions, it gives an unofficial summary of the Spanish text.
What it has to contain
Article 3(2)(k) has two layers, and it pays to write them separately.
The first is existence. The document states which algorithmic or automated decision-making systems are used in the employment relationship. This layer carries no condition: it applies to any system of that kind, whether or not it is artificial intelligence and whatever its risk level.
The second is the rules. Where a system is used to decide on working conditions, the document explains its guidelines, criteria and operating rules. The provision gives examples of conditions — length and distribution of working time, allocation of tasks, pay, career progression, place of work, termination of the contract — introduced by "such as": they are illustrations, not a closed list.
And one warning the text makes by omission: Article 3(3) lets other points of the same paragraph be met by referring to the collective agreement or to the law. Point (k) is not on that list. The information on systems has to be written into the document.
An outline for writing it
For each system, five blocks. The first two answer what the provision requires; the other three are advisable so that the information can be understood and kept up to date.
- Which system it is. The name the workforce knows it by, what it is used for and in which part of the work it intervenes.
- What it decides or helps to decide. If it intervenes in a working condition, which one. If it does not decide on conditions, recording that it exists is enough.
- With which rules. For those that decide on conditions: what data it uses, what criteria it applies and what consequence it has for the person. In plain language; an unexplained formula informs no one.
- Who reviews. Whether a person validates or can correct the result, where and how. Point (k) does not require it, but it explains the decision better than any technical description.
- Version and date. From when this description applies, so that changes can be reported later.
Two reading tests before the text is final: that a person with no technical training understands what the system decides about them, and that the description matches what the system does now, not what the contract with the vendor said.
To whom it is delivered
To each worker, individually. The chapter of the Royal Decree that contains this obligation applies to employment relationships lasting more than four weeks (Article 2(2)).
It does not replace collective information. Article 64(4)(d) of the Spanish Workers' Statute already gave the workers' legal representatives the right to be informed of the algorithms that affect working conditions and access to and retention of employment. These are two addressees and two documents, and neither covers the other.
Nor is it information for job candidates: the Royal Decree's obligation arises with the employment relationship. The recruitment page sets out the three layers that coexist in that sector.
When it is delivered
- New hires: before the employment relationship begins (Article 7(1)).
- Changes: any modification — a new system, a change to its rules, its withdrawal — is reported in writing as soon as possible and at the latest on the day it takes effect (Articles 5(1) and 7(3)).
- Staff already employed on 5 October 2026: to anyone who requests it, within thirty working days of the request and provided they did not already have the information (sole transitional provision). Changes after that date follow the deadline for changes.
How it is delivered and how it is proved
On paper or in electronic form, provided the person can access the information, store it and print it, and the employer keeps proof of transmission or receipt (Article 6(2)). The provision does not ask for a signed acknowledgement; it asks that delivery can be proved, and that is decided before the first document is sent, not afterwards.
For workers with disabilities or with borderline intellectual capacity, the employer must ensure that the information is accessible and understandable (Article 6(3)).
The first additional provision provides for a template document from Spain's public employment service and states that making it available does not condition the enforceability of the obligation. Until it exists, the information is given by any suitable means that ensures it is recorded and accessible.
What it is not
It is not a licence to monitor. The Royal Decree governs what each person must be told, not what the employer may do with their data. The limits on monitoring at work come from other rules, among them Articles 87 to 91 of Spain's data protection act (LOPDGDD) and the GDPR. Informing about a system does not make it lawful.
It does not depend on the AI Act. The obligation falls on the employer, regardless of whether the company is a provider or a deployer of an AI system, and it also reaches systems that are not artificial intelligence.
How it relates to Annex III, point 4(b)
The Royal Decree's preamble explains that this provision rests on several articles of the EU AI Act, in connection with Annex III, point 4(b). That point classifies as high-risk, among others, AI systems intended to be used to make decisions affecting terms of work-related relationships, to allocate tasks based on individual behaviour or personal traits or characteristics, or to monitor and evaluate the performance and behaviour of persons.
If one of the systems you describe is also high-risk under that point, Article 26(7) of the Regulation will be added: before putting it into service or using it at the workplace, the employer deploying it shall inform workers' representatives and the affected workers. Article 26 applies from 2 December 2027 for high-risk systems under Annex III and from 2 August 2028 for those under Annex I; it does not reach products under Annex I, Section B.
These are layers that add up, not that replace each other: the Royal Decree's document is delivered either way, whether or not the system is high-risk.
Content in accordance with the preamble and Articles 2(2), 3(2)(k), 3(3), 5(1), 6(2), 6(3), 7(1) and 7(3), the sole transitional provision and the first additional provision of Spain's Royal Decree 723/2026, Article 64(4)(d) of the Spanish Workers' Statute, and Article 26(7) and Annex III, point 4, of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.