Harassment protocols in student accommodation or a hall of residence in Spain: the two you need (2026)
Two different relationships live side by side in university accommodation: the centre's relationship with its staff, and the centre's relationship with the people who live there. Harassment can happen in both, and they are not handled with the same document. Most centres have only one, and it is almost always the employment one.
The short answer
You need two procedures. One applies from your first employee and doesn't depend on the size of the centre. The other doesn't arrive through employment law, but through the centre's relationship with its university and through its own house rules.
| Harassment of a MEMBER OF STAFF | Harassment between RESIDENTS | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it comes from | Art. 48 of Organic Act 3/2007 | Act 3/2022 on university coexistence, by way of the university, and the house rules |
| From how many employees? | From the first one. Art. 48 sets no threshold | It doesn't depend on headcount: it depends on there being residents |
| Who investigates | The company, with the workers' representatives where they exist | Whoever the centre's rules designate, coordinated with the university |
| What can be decided | Employment measures and employment disciplinary sanctions | The measures the house rules provide for |
What Article 48 actually says
It is the one most often quoted from memory and most often quoted wrongly. Its wording in force no longer covers sexual harassment alone: it reaches offences and conduct against sexual freedom and moral integrity at work, including those committed in the digital sphere.
Companies shall promote working conditions that prevent the commission of offences and other conduct against sexual freedom and moral integrity at work, with particular emphasis on sexual harassment and sex-based harassment, including those committed in the digital sphere.
Notice what it does not say: it mentions no number of employees. That is what distinguishes it from Article 45 of the same act, the one on equality plans, which does start at fifty people. A residence with three employees is bound by Art. 48 and not by Art. 45.
Organic Act 3/2007, on effective equality between women and men — consolidated text in the BOEOjo con esto
Article 48 sets the obligation and the purpose, not a table of contents. There is no closed legal list of what the protocol has to contain. The specific content comes from the applicable collective bargaining agreement, from the criteria of the Labour Inspectorate and from what is agreed with the workers' representatives. If someone sells you a template saying its content is «what the law requires», they are attributing to the law something the law does not say.
The residents' side, which is the one that's missing
A resident is not an employee. There is no employment contract, no union representation and no employment disciplinary power. Applying to them a procedure written for an employment relationship is not a technicality: it is using a route that doesn't fit, and the decision that comes out of it can be challenged by whoever receives it.
The route for residents arrives elsewhere. Act 3/2022 never names halls of residence, but it requires the university to have specific procedures for channelling complaints, and that passes to the centre by two routes: that university's Coexistence Rules and the centre's own house rules.
Act 3/2022, on university coexistence — consolidated text in the BOEThe minimum it should settle in writing
- Who investigates, by job title, and a deputy for when the investigator is party to the case or otherwise involved.
- How a report is received and what happens if the person making it asks not to be identified. The law does not require anonymity here, but if the rules don't provide for it, in practice the report never arrives.
- What deadlines there are for acknowledging receipt and for resolving. Without written deadlines, a case can sit for months without anyone breaching anything.
- Interim measures while the case is investigated, especially a change of room or of dining-hall sitting, which is the first thing needed and the last thing usually written down.
- The crossed case: staff towards resident and resident towards staff. It is the one that gets stuck most often, because it doesn't fall wholly within either procedure.
- What is kept, where and for how long, and who may read it. A harassment file contains special categories of data.
And is this the same as the whistleblowing channel?
No, and it's worth not mixing them, because the thresholds run the opposite way to what people assume. The whistleblowing channel under Act 2/2023 only binds private entities with fifty or more employees (Art. 10(1)(a)), and most halls of residence don't reach that headcount. The harassment protocol under Article 48 binds with no threshold at all.
Put another way: a small centre can be required to have the protocol and not required to have the channel. We've gone into it in the guide on the whistleblowing channel, and into how responsibilities split between centre and university in the one on the house rules.
Act 2/2023, regulating the protection of whistleblowers — consolidated text in the BOEFrequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
Is student accommodation required to have a harassment protocol?
For its staff, yes, and from the first employee. Article 48(1) of Organic Act 3/2007 requires companies to promote working conditions that prevent the commission of offences and other conduct against sexual freedom and moral integrity at work, with particular emphasis on sexual harassment and sex-based harassment. Unlike the equality plans of Article 45, which start at fifty people, Article 48 sets no headcount threshold.
Does that same protocol work for a case between two residents?
No, and using it that way is the most repeated mistake. The Article 48 protocol governs an employment relationship: it assumes there is a company, workers' representatives and disciplinary power over an employee. Two residents are not employees of the centre. Their route comes through Act 3/2022 on university coexistence, via the university's Coexistence Rules, and takes concrete form in the centre's house rules.
What if the harassment is from a staff member towards a resident, or the other way round?
It is the case that gets stuck most often, because it crosses both spheres, and it is worth having it foreseen in writing before it happens. Over the staff member the centre does have employment disciplinary power; over the resident, whatever its house rules and the university's rules give it. What cannot happen is that the case is left without an investigator because neither document covers it.
Does the law say what the employment protocol has to contain?
Not as a closed list. Article 48 sets the obligation and the purpose, not a table of contents. The specific content usually comes from the applicable collective bargaining agreement, from the criteria of the Labour Inspectorate and from what is agreed with the workers' representatives. Anyone selling a template claiming its content is what the law requires is asserting something the law does not say.
Is a whistleblowing channel needed as well?
They are different things and they don't replace each other. The whistleblowing channel under Act 2/2023 only binds private entities with fifty or more employees (Art. 10(1)(a)), and many centres don't reach it. The harassment protocol under Article 48 binds with no threshold. A small centre can be required to have the protocol and not the channel.
Can a residence have a single document for everything?
It can have an umbrella document, but inside it needs two separate procedures, because the investigator, the power and the deadlines all change. What doesn't work is a single text that talks about «workers» and gets applied to residents: when the moment comes, the procedure doesn't fit and the decision that follows can be challenged.
Who writes this
Bedel is a WhatsApp assistant for halls of residence, student accommodation and coliving spaces. Among other things it runs a confidential communications channel, which is why we have had to read these rules closely. This guide does not replace a lawyer or your collective bargaining agreement: it is the map that would have saved us time.