The Minister of Labour and Second Deputy Prime Minister, Yolanda Díaz, intends to toughen the conditions for dismissals considered unfair (improcedentes)—which currently generate compensation of 33 days’ salary per year worked, capped at 24 months’ salary—based on the premise that the current regulation of fixed compensation is neither a deterrent for companies nor does it sufficiently repair the harm done to affected workers.
With this premise, the Ministry of Labour is launching today a new dialogue table with social agents—unions and employers—to negotiate the toughening of unfair dismissal conditions in Spain.
This is a new effort by the Labour Minister following the setback of the parliamentary defeat regarding the reduction of the working day—which she has tried to compensate for by approving a regulation for the new, stricter time-recording system (registro horario)—although once again, passing major legislative changes seems highly complex given the current composition of the Congress.
According to the European Committee of Social Rights, Spanish legislation for unfair dismissals neither compensates for the harm caused to the worker nor acts as a deterrent for the company. However, a recent Supreme Court ruling that states the impossibility of increasing the amounts of unfair dismissal compensation through judicial means—even though numerous lower courts have ruled in recent years to increase compensation, taking into account the indications of the Social Charter and the individual situation of those affected—makes the object of the negotiation even more complex.
The President of the CEOE (Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations), Antonio Garamendi, publicly celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision, which, among other things, emphasized the legal certainty that the current system offers companies and workers regarding dismissal.
