Pérez-Llorca’s Employment, Compensation and Benefits practice area held a new ‘Pérez-Llorca Labour Law Update’ session with the participation of partners Daniel Cifuentes and Isabel Moya and Of Counsel Yolanda Valdeolivas, who discussed the main news on dismissal, as well as the agreement on LGBTI equality and non-discrimination.
Daniel Cifuentes began the seminar by analysing the recent agreement between employers, trade unions and the government on LGBTI plans. Cifuentes explained that, despite the fact that companies with more than 50 employees have been obliged to have an LGBTI Plan since 2 March this year, all agents are waiting expectantly for the publication of the regulation in the Official State Gazette (“BOE”). “The draft regulation is a bit contradictory as the measures for equality and non-discrimination are laid down in collective bargaining, but at the same time it points out that companies are obliged to negotiate them internally,” said Cifuentes. In this regard, the partner clarified that if there is no workers’ representation forming the trade union committee, it has been established that the measures of the regulation will be directly applicable.
Then, following the usual ‘Pérez-Llorca Labour Law Update’ session format, Isabel Moya presented the top three most significant judgments from recent months. The first was the judgment of the National High Court of 14 May 2024 on the matter of thresholds for collective dismissal. Moya highlighted the progress of the case law in this area and the new cases that have been included in recent years. For the partner, in this case the National High Court goes a step further as “the agreements signed with workers to be transferred to other companies of the commercial group must also be considered for the purposes of the thresholds for collective dismissal, given that relocations in companies from the group are measures to be negotiated in the consultation period.”
To conclude the session, Yolanda Valdeolivas analysed the European Committee of Social Rights’ imminent ruling on compensation in addition to the legal compensation for unfair dismissal. Valdeolivas indicated that, in the event of a decision that our domestic legislation was not in line with the European Social Charter in this area, a modification would be made to article 56 of the Workers’ Statute on severance pay. In this context, some trade unions claimed that Spanish domestic legislation was inadequate, but these allegations that were rejected by the government’s Ministry of Economy.
The European Social Charter states that there must be adequate compensation and there must be some system of redress for the damage suffered by the worker through the loss of employment. Valdeolivas went on to state that “in compensation, the reparation of damages to compensate the worker prevails over any type of interpretation of a dissuasive nature. In addition, Spain has unemployment benefits, which should be considered as a system of reparation for the damage suffered due to the loss of employment”, considering that our legal system is in line with the European Social Charter.
Valdeolivas also explained the main features of other new developments in the field of dismissal, such as dismissals in a situation of temporary incapacity and the termination contracts following the declaration of permanent incapacity. On this last matter, the expert pointed out that the government has eliminated automatic dismissal on declaration of permanent disability, which means that article 49.1.e) of the Workers’ Statute will need to be amended.