Salvador del Rey

Mr. del Rey's professional practice covers all national and international aspects of labor law, prevention of occupational hazards and social security.

He specializes and has extensive experience in organizational change and the modification of working conditions, group transfers, decentralization, downsizing, legal configuration of compensation systems, labor implications of company takeovers and spin-offs, legal aspects of introducing new technologies, and labor aspects of cross-border corporate restructuring.

He is an expert in advising multinational groups and Spanish business groups on strategies for collective bargaining, downsizing, senior management issues and other labor-related matters.

He has participated in some of the most important and complex restructuring and negotiation processes in Spain in recent years. He also has extensive experience in advising on senior management issues, compensation and benefits. Mr. Del Rey was a member of the Consejo Económico y Social (Economic and Social Board) and has participated in numerous expert committees responsible for drafting regulations such as the 'Report on unemployment benefits for the self-employed' (2008), the 'Report on the Self-Employed Workers Statute' (2004-2005) and the 'Report on the Basic Statute for Civil Servants' (2004-2005).

In 2001, he was a member of a European Union group of experts that analyzed the implementation of a European system of labor mediation and arbitration for cross-border disputes.

Salvador del Rey was chair of the International Bar Association’s Global Employment Institute (“IBA GEI”) from 2010 to 2015. He was chair of the IBA GEI’s advisory board from 2016 to 2019, and a member of the Human Resources Section Board. He is former chair of the IBA’s Employment and Industrial Relations Law Committee, and was a board member of its Legal Practice Division.

Having directed Cuatrecasas Institute’s Technos Project I (2016-2019), Salvador del Rey now leads Technos Project II (2019-2021), whose primary mission is to identify the changes that new technologies are producing and going to produce in corporate organizational structures.

From 2017 to 2019, he led the IBA working group that prepared the report on The Future of Work: Contribution on global legal trends and regulations of work in the future, 2017-2019. In July, 2019, the president of the IBA submitted the report to the director general of the International Labour Organization.

Salvador del Rey coordinates Anuario Laboral (Labor Directory) and Colección de Anuarios – Prácticas para Abogados (Collection of Directories – Practice Areas for Lawyers), a collection of four guides by publishing house Wolters Kluwer. This annual publication showcases major cases represented by the leading law firms specializing in business law, in the litigation, tax, labor and commercial areas.

He is a member of the editorial board of the Spanish Labor Law and Employment Relations Journal, and of the scientific committee of the journal Labos. Revista de Derecho del Trabajo y la Protección social (Labos. Journal on Labor Law and Social Protection). He is a member of the advisory committees of the journals Trabajo y Derecho (Work and Law) and Derecho de las Relaciones Laborales (Labor Relations Law).

He speaks regularly at national and international seminars and conferences on diverse aspects of labor law and human resources. He is also the author of 30 monographs and over 180 articles and essays in collective works and in national and international journals on labor relations and law.

Salvador de Rey has been a visiting lecturer at the London School of Economics and at Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations (New York).