Studies & Degrees in Labor Relations
Choose where you would like to study Labor Relations:
Labor relations is the study of the relationship between employers and employees: how work is regulated, how pay and conditions are negotiated and how disputes are settled. It is also called industrial or employment relations. In practice it is taught together with human resource management, and in Spain the two form a single degree.
The subject is interdisciplinary. The Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) describes its degree as a general legal training, above all in labour law, combined with sociology, organisation, history and psychology. Students take labour and social security law, collective bargaining, human resource management, labour economics, the sociology and psychology of work, occupational health and safety, payroll and negotiation and mediation techniques.
Qualifications and levels
- Bachelor's degree in Spain. The degree is the Grado en Relaciones Laborales y Recursos Humanos. It has 240 ECTS credits and takes four years; the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC) lists 60 credits per year. According to the UCM, the grado replaced the earlier diploma in Relaciones Laborales and the second-cycle degree in Ciencias del Trabajo. Several universities combine it with Law in a double degree; the URJC also offers double degrees with Accounting and Finance and with Social Work.
- The graduado social. In Spain the degree leads to a profession of its own, the graduado social, an adviser and representative in labour and social security matters. The URJC describes it as a profession that requires both a degree and membership of a professional college, working above all with small and medium-sized companies. The Consejo General de Graduados Sociales groups 43 provincial colleges with 17,000 members, and the profession marked its centenary in 2025.
- Master's degree. Official Spanish master's degrees have 60, 90 or 120 ECTS credits; common fields are human resource management, occupational risk prevention and labour law. Business and law schools also offer their own programmes; ask the school what recognition the qualification has. In the United States the subject is often studied at graduate level: the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has a School of Labor and Employment Relations with a master's degree in human resources and a PhD.
- Bachelor's degree and certificates in the United States. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), some schools offer a bachelor's degree in labor and industrial relations, and some colleges and universities offer labor relations certificates in specialised topics such as mediation.
Where to study it
SpainExchange lists 50 active schools for labor relations, and 41 of them are in Spain. The United States, Canada and Argentina have two each, and the United Kingdom, Australia and the Philippines one each.
In Spain the degree is taught mainly at public universities across the country. The list includes the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, the Universidad de Cádiz, the Universidad de Málaga, the Universidad de Almería, the Universidad de Murcia, the Universidad de Alicante, the Universidad Miguel Hernández in Elche, the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, the Universidad de Oviedo, the Universidad de Cantabria, the Universidad de Burgos, the Universidad de La Rioja and the Galician universities of A Coruña and Vigo. Private institutions on the list include the Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia (UCAM), ESDEN Business School and the Centro de Estudios Garrigues, a business and law school in Madrid.
Outside Spain the list includes the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Queen's University in Kingston, Canada, the Universidad Argentina John F. Kennedy in Buenos Aires and the University of the Philippines Diliman.
The Spanish degree is taught in Spanish, with co-official languages used at some universities in Catalonia, Galicia and the Valencia region. Labour law is national law. A Spanish degree prepares students for the Spanish system; advising on employment matters in another country means learning that country's rules.
Careers
Spanish universities describe similar career paths: labour and social security adviser (graduado social), human resources manager or officer, employment counsellor and mediator, occupational risk prevention officer, trade union or employers' association adviser, and posts in the public administration.
For the United States, the BLS describes labor relations specialists as people who resolve employee-management disputes, negotiate labor contracts and coordinate grievance procedures. They typically need a bachelor's degree in labor and industrial relations, human resources, business or a related field. Labor unions and similar organisations employed 72% of them in 2025. The BLS projects employment to grow 2 percent from 2025 to 2035, slower than the average for all occupations. For human resources specialists, a larger occupation open to the same graduates, it projects growth of 6 percent.
Frequently asked questions
What is a graduado social?
A Spanish professional who advises and represents companies and workers in labour and social security matters. The profession requires the degree and membership of a professional college, and it has 17,000 members in 43 provincial colleges, according to its general council.
How long is the degree in Spain?
The Grado en Relaciones Laborales y Recursos Humanos has 240 ECTS credits and takes four years.
Is labor relations the same as human resources?
They overlap. Labor relations focuses on law, collective bargaining and disputes between employers and employees; human resources focuses on recruiting, training and managing staff inside an organisation. The Spanish degree covers both.
Can I use a Spanish labor relations degree in another country?
The management content transfers, but labour and social security law does not, because it is national.