I. Legal context
The obligation to draw up sustainable workplace mobility plans stems from the Spanish Law 9/2025 of 3 December on Sustainable Mobility (hereinafter, the “Law”), which, in Article 26.1, established that businesses and obligated entities would have 24 months from its entry in force to have the plan operational. As the law entered into force on 5 December 2025, the original deadline was 5 December 2027.
What has changed is the geopolitical context. On 28 February 2026, armed conflict broke out in Iran, with the consequent blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and the sharp rise in fuel prices: a barrel of Brent crude oil exceeded USD 119, and TTF natural gas recorded increases of more than 40% in a single day.
Against this backdrop, the Spanish Government responded with the Royal Decree-Law 7/2026 of 20 March, which approves the Comprehensive Response Plan for the Crisis in the Middle East and, among its many measures, amends the Law through Article 63.
The amendment is specific but has a major practical impact: the timeframe is reduced from 24 months to 12 months, placing the deadline on 5 December 2026. The justification for the urgency is consistent with the rest of the decree-law: if workers travel more efficiently, by public transport or through remote working, dependence on fossil fuels is reduced, as is the exposure of companies and workers to energy price volatility. The connection with the conflict in Iran is legally sufficient to allow the use of the decree-law under Article 86 of the Spanish Constitution, that is, where there is a situation of extraordinary and urgent need, as has occurred with similar measures in previous decrees linked to the war in Ukraine.
II. Scope of application: which companies it affects
The obligation applies to all private companies and public-sector entities, within the meaning of Article 2 of the Law, that have workplaces with more than 200 workers or more than 100 per shift, where that workplace is the usual workplace for the affected workforce.
Three points of practical relevance:
1. The threshold applies per workplace, not per company or group. A company with several workplaces that individually do not exceed 200 workers is not subject to the obligation in respect of any of them. In corporate groups where different entities share the same physical location, the question of whether there is one workplace or several is determined by the definition set out in Article 1.5 of the Workers’ Statute.
2. The rule does not distinguish by sector of activity. An industrial plant, a private hospital, a large retail establishment, a technology company, a cooperative or a foundation with a large workforce: all are equally obligated if they exceed the threshold.
3. The public sector is expressly included. This reaches administrations, autonomous bodies, agencies, public business entities and public corporations.
III. New requirements regarding the content of the plan
Article 63 of the Royal Decree-Law 7/2026 also amends paragraph 3 of Article 26 of the Law, expanding the minimum required content.
In addition to the requirements already set forth in the original rule, including the promotion of public transport and active mobility, low-emission solutions, charging infrastructure for zero-emission vehicles, and remote working where possible, the reform introduces the following new requirements:
- Road safety and the prevention of accidents en route.
This is the most relevant requirement from the employment-law perspective. The plan must expressly include measures to improve road safety and prevent accidents during journeys to work, as well as specific training initiatives in both areas.
The connection with the Law 31/1995 on the Prevention of Occupational Risks is direct: accidents in itinere are recognised as occupational accidents according to Article 156.2a) of the LGSS, and any company that has not adopted documented preventative measures may face aggravated liability in the event of an accident, including the surcharge on benefits under Article 164 of the LGSS of up to 50% of the benefits.
In practice, this means analysing the workforce’s typical commuting routes, identifying high-risk sections, adapting start and finish times to avoid dangerous traffic peaks, and include training on safe driving, cycling or specific risks depending on the predominant modes of transport.
- Expansion of the scope and requirements of the workplace mobility plan
The plan can no longer be limited to the company’s own workforce. The law requires that visitors, suppliers and any other person that needs access to the facility also be taken into account. This obliges them to consider the transport of everyone in the immediate vicinity of the facility, not just direct employees.
- Alignment with the municipal mobility plan
Where the municipality in which the workplace is located has its own sustainable mobility plan, the company is required to take it into account and align its strategy with it. This adds a preliminary layer of work: identifying whether municipal planning exists before drafting the plan.
IV. Article 64: mobility as a financial condition
The most relevant update from the perspective of immediate legal risk does not lie in the content of the plan, but rather, in the enforcement mechanism introduced by Article 64 of the Royal Decree-Law 7/2026.
For companies that are required to have a plan pursuant to Article 26.1 of the Law 9/2025 and that are also recipients of the direct aid provided for in the decree itself, namely the fuel subsidiaries for transporters, farmers, cattle farmers, fishermen and maritime transport operators regulated in Titles IV and V, non-compliance with the obligation to have the plan will entail in the repayment of the aid received.
It is important to clarify the scope of this consequence. It does not affect all companies that are subject to the plan, but only those that also receive this sector-specific aid. A company that does not receive any of these aids may still be required to have a plan, but Article 64 will not apply to it. Where applicable, repayment is governed by the procedure set out in Chapter II of Title II of the Law 38/2003, the General Subsidiaries Law, with the corresponding effects regarding default interest and possible additional liabilities.
V. The preparation process: negotiation with workers
The plan cannot be approved unilaterally by company management. It must be negotiated with the employees’ legal representative or, failing that, with the most representative trade unions in the sector.
This involves the formal opening of the process, the exchange of proposals, possible disagreements and a negotiation period whose duration is difficult to predict.
VI. Recommended action
Given the limited time available, we recommend taking the following steps immediately:
a) Confirm if any workplace exceeds the thresholds for mandatory application, paying particular attention to corporate groups with different entities at the same site.
b) Check whether the company is, or may become, a beneficiary of the direct aid under the Real Decree-Law 7/2026, which triggers the repayment consequence provided for in Article 64.
c) Commission a genuine mobility assessment of the workforce, including an analysis of routes and road-safety risks.
d) Open the negotiation process with the employees’ legal representatives as soon as possible.
e) Review the workplace’s operational risk prevention plan to integrate into it the road safety measures that the mobility plan must include.
VII. Conclusions
The new decree-law transforms an obligation that many businesses had mentally set aside until 2027 into an immediate priority for 2026, with a deadline that, once the time needed for assessment and negotiations with workers is taken into account, is tighter than it appears.
Beyond the deadline, however, what matters is the change in the nature of the obligation. The mobility plan ceases to be merely an environmental sustainability instrument and also becomes a tool for occupational risk prevention, with direct implications for occupational accidents and the corporate liability that may arise from them.
A plan that is properly prepared and negotiated and aligned with the regulatory framework is not just a compliance formality: it is a document with real preventative and exculpatory value.
Kengo Matsuoka
Vilá Abogados
For more information, contact:
22nd May 2026