I've been contracting for a US software startup out of Spain for 3 years, invoiced monthly, set my own hours with no benefits or holiday pay…

And when they let a chunk of the team go a few weeks back they told me contractors were fine because we weren't employees on the payroll.

A Spanish friend who works in HR mentioned that what I've described sounds a lot like "falso autónomo", which is where continuous work for a single client over a long period doing the same work as their employees would qualify the relationship as employment under Spanish labour law anyway, and she mentioned there's case law on it for exactly this kind of setup.

I'm not in a bad position right now since I kept my contract while other people were let go, but if she's right then the company has been getting the cost structure of a contractor while the relationship has looked like employment.

And from what I've read the usual fix is them converting me to a proper employment contract through an EOR like Deel or Workmotion, though I'm…