Overview
Spain published Royal Decree 723/2026 in the Boletín Oficial del Estado on 15 September, and it takes effect on 5 October 2026. Two provisions apply directly to remote workers. Article 3.2.c) requires employers to state in writing which work centre an employee is attached to when working at a distance. Article 3.2.k) requires employers to disclose the existence of algorithmic or automated decision-making systems, and the rules they operate on, where those systems help determine working conditions. The decree repeals Royal Decree 1659/1998 and partially transposes Directive (EU) 2019/1152 on transparent and predictable working conditions.
The United Kingdom settled a question that had been open since February. The Department for Business and Trade published its response to the Make Work Pay consultation on flexible working on 15 September, confirming that the reforms arrive through secondary legislation in autumn 2027. Employers will have to hold a meeting before refusing a request, explore alternatives, respond in writing, and meet a new reasonableness test. Three consulted proposals were dropped, and there will be no statutory right of appeal and no right to be accompanied at the meeting.
Greece is extending a relocation grant that breaks the usual pattern. The Demographic Development Programme, which began in Evros, now reaches seven of the eight municipalities of the Ioannina regional unit and the municipalities of Souli and Filiates in Thesprotia. The grant is €10,000 per household, paid in two instalments, and participation does not require a job in the destination area. Greek reporting states that teleworkers, pensioners and unemployed people qualify on that basis, which is what makes it reachable for someone whose income comes from elsewhere.
EU-Level Policy & Regulation
The European Commission’s second-phase social-partner consultation on the Quality Jobs Act closes on 28 September 2026. It covers occupational safety and health for workplaces outside the home, telework-specific and psychosocial risks, algorithmic management and workplace surveillance. A formal proposal is expected in the last quarter of 2026. With no telework directive and no right-to-disconnect directive in existence, this remains the live route to any EU-level floor on these questions. (European Commission)
We covered the consultation when it opened. What is new is that the window shuts this month.
The Commission also adopted its Fair Labour Mobility Package on 15 September, containing five proposals: a European Social Security Pass, a Skills Portability Act, a regulation strengthening the European Labour Authority, an amended Professional Qualifications Directive, and a directive cutting recognition times for non-EU qualifications from 14 months to four. One point is worth stating plainly, because secondary coverage has implied otherwise: the Commission’s text makes no mention of remote work, telework, cross-border teleworking, digital nomads or the self-employed. (European Commission)
Country Updates
Spain
Royal Decree 723/2026, dated 9 September, was published on 15 September and enters into force twenty days later. It applies to employment relationships lasting more than four weeks.
The work-centre requirement addresses something remote workers are often left guessing about. Naming the centre an employee is attached to settles which workplace agreement covers them and which works council represents them, questions that resolve themselves for office-based staff and do not for anyone working at a distance.
The algorithmic-disclosure duty is the newer ground. Where software helps set schedules, allocate tasks, or inform decisions about pay, progression, workplace location or termination, the employer must disclose that it exists and explain the rules it runs on.
These duties are owed by employers to employees. If you work in Spain as an autónom@ rather than under an employment contract, the decree does not reach your client relationships. (Boletín Oficial del Estado)
Separately, InfoJobs published the sixth edition of its Radiografía del Teletrabajo. A quarter of Spanish workers telework fully or partly, split 19% hybrid and 6% fully remote, essentially unchanged on 2025. On the employer side, 39% of companies now offer hybrid working against 33% in 2024, and 75% intend to keep current conditions, with 4% considering a reduction. (Infobae / EFE)
United Kingdom
The DBT response draws on more than 1,000 consultation responses. The substantive change is that a refusal will have to be reasonable, not merely correctly processed, and Employment Tribunals will be able to assess that substance rather than only procedural compliance. A draft code of practice goes before Parliament in summer 2027, and Acas will consult on an updated code.
What did not survive the consultation is as telling as what did. The requirement that the decision-maker attend the meeting was dropped, as were the Equality Act adjustment prompt and a fixed one-week notice period. There is no right of appeal and no right to be accompanied, so the meeting that decides a request is one an employee attends alone with no internal stage after it.
The reforms do not create a right to work from home. The eight statutory business reasons for refusal remain. (gov.uk)
Greece
Under Law 5322/2026 the relocation grant is set at a flat €10,000 per beneficiary household, paid as two instalments of €5,000. The first is released on approval of the application, and can be advanced before approval to cover moving costs; the second follows a first full year of permanent residence in the destination municipality.
The absence of a local-employment condition is the feature that matters for anyone reading this site. Most European repopulation schemes are built around a job in the receiving area, which puts them out of reach if your income arrives from somewhere else. Minister of Social Cohesion and Family Domna Michailidou named Greeks living abroad who want to return as a target group, and the framework provides for participation by residents of other EU member states under conditions still to be set.
The extension is announced rather than formalised. A Joint Ministerial Decision is expected within days, and the application platform opens only once it is issued. (Protothema)
Sweden
New rules published by the Swedish Migration Agency on 15 September take effect on 1 October 2026, governing family members of people who hold long-term resident status in another EU country and move to Sweden. “Family member” narrows to a partner and children under 18. The family must have been formed in the first EU country, meaning the applicant held a permit there and the family lived together there. A maintenance requirement now applies to the person already in Sweden.
Transitional protection is uneven. Extension applications filed by 1 October 2027 on permits granted before 1 October 2026 fall under the old rules, but there are no transitional rules for first-time applicants. (Migrationsverket)
Netherlands
Prinsjesdag produced a good deal of coverage suggesting the 30% ruling is being cut to 27%. It is, from 1 January 2027 – but that was legislated in the Belastingplan 2025 package presented in September 2024, not announced this month. The salary norms attached to it are base amounts at 2024 price levels and are subject to annual indexation, so the figures circulating are not the ones that will apply in the 2027 payroll year.
The nearer-term Dutch development for freelancers remains the rebuttable presumption of employment for work paid under €38 an hour, approved in June and taking effect on 31 December 2026, which shifts the burden of proof onto the client.
AI Search & GEO Developments
Two developments this week bear on how independent publishers sit with AI search.
Village Media signed an agreement with OpenAI, the first Canadian news partnership of its kind. The consideration is funding, API credits and technical support for Village Media’s own AI product rather than a per-article licence fee. For publishers below the scale of a national masthead, partnership-in-kind is emerging as the realistic shape of these deals.
The Seattle Times and Newsday filed a joint suit against OpenAI and Microsoft on 7 September, alleging paywalled content was taken into training datasets without permission or compensation. Regional publishers are now litigating rather than waiting, which follows Cloudflare’s change to its crawler defaults earlier this month. (Press Gazette)
Research & Data
The European Parliamentary Research Service published a briefing on the skills-portability initiative, reporting that 67% of consultation respondents found qualification-recognition procedures too lengthy, costly and complex, particularly for non-EU nationals. The current Professional Qualifications Directive excludes third-country nationals altogether. (EPRS)
The European Labour Authority published a report on undeclared work in private security, a sector of 1.2 million workers worth around €47bn, identifying bogus self-employment and complex subcontracting chains as the areas of highest risk. (European Labour Authority)
What to watch next week
- 28 September – the European Commission’s second-phase consultation on the Quality Jobs Act closes.
- 1 October – Sweden’s new family rules for long-term residents of other EU countries take effect, with no transitional protection for first-time applicants.
- October – Greece’s Joint Ministerial Decision is expected, followed by the opening of the relocation application platform.
- 5 October – Spain’s Royal Decree 723/2026 takes effect for employment relationships lasting more than four weeks.
Last week’s edition is here.