It is now an open secret. The General Union of Workers commented on Monday on the resolution of the European Committee of Social Rights to its claim on severance pay, which the parties have known about for four months but which the community body will make public next week. “We are faced with a historic resolution, which will change the concept that has been maintained over time in Spanish legislation,” said the general secretary of UGT, Pepe Álvarez.
According to the union, the resolution follows the same terms as those already adopted in relation to claims brought against France, Italy and Finland, which referred to the fact that unfair compensation should be fixed and limited. Currently, in Spain, the amount is 33 days per year worked, with a limit of 24 monthly payments.
“The employer cannot know about the severance pay, because it loses its effective deterrent value,” said Alvarez, who recalled that, in addition, “it must cover the damages to the victim.” This is what Article 24 of the European Social Charterwhich Spain ratified in June 2021 and which is part of the legal system, recognizes “the right of all workers not to be dismissed without valid reasons” and, failing that, to receive “adequate compensation or other appropriate reparation.”
“The Committee’s criteria,” explained the UGT general secretary, “is that the price of the compensation must prevent the company from finding it worthwhile to fire.” Both the union’s demand and the resolution refer solely and exclusively to unfair dismissals, that is, without objective cause. According to union data, around 900,000 dismissals of this type occur in Spain each year, with an average fine for the company of 9,000 euros, which, according to Álvarez, “does not have any deterrent or restorative character.” “We have bargain prices, firing arbitrarily is too easy,” he denounced.
Compensation that restores
What would this compensatory compensation be like? “We can refer to some European experience, which places the minimum compensation at six months, recover the 45 days per year worked that was repealed in 2012 or talk about issues that have to do with severance pay,” said Álvarez. But the cool thing is to define the payment based on the vital characteristics of the dismissed person: “It is necessary that the judges, when making a decision, take into account personal issues that aggravate the amount, such as the employability possibilities of the person, both due to their geographical environment and their age or training, if they have people in their care and of what age, if they have to pay rent or a mortgage, what their economic situation is, the risks of vulnerability, if they are part of a specific group that has to do with disability or gender violence, or elements of proximity to retirement.”
In addition, according to the union, the ruling obliges Spain to recover the procedural wages and to shorten the legal proceedings. “The resolution does not give recommendations, but indicates that in order to fully compensate the damage caused to the victim of an unfair dismissal, compensation must be given for the financial losses suffered from the time the dismissal takes place until a decision is made, and that this must come within a reasonable period of time,” explains the deputy general secretary of union policy of UGT, Fernando Luján.
The union now advocates starting negotiations in September to adapt Spanish labour legislation to the Committee’s ruling, but in any case, they point out that the text is already binding. “It is a jurisdictional body and what it does is to rule accordingly,” says Luján. In fact, the High Courts of Justice of Catalonia and the Basque Country have already issued rulings in which they recognise extra compensation based on the Charter. In this regard, Álvarez has conveyed to both the CEOE and the Government that if “there is no interest in this resolution being applied with a legislative change”, the union is not concerned about going “court by court, litigation by litigation, discussing all these issues.”
Disagreements in the Government and denial in the employers’ association
At this time, the negotiation does not seem easy. The president of the employers’ association, Antonio Garamendi, has indicated that the Committee is “consultative.” There are many consultative issues that are not addressed,” he said in a statement. Interview in El Pais. UGT, however, cites article 94 of the Constitution, which speaks of the “guarantee of compliance” of this series of international treaties and resolutions. “There are countries that have not wanted to be bound, such as Germany or Austria. Others that have, such as France and Italy. And others, such as Spain, have had a 25-year review process before signing it definitively,” Luján argued.
The second vice-president of the Government, Yolanda Díaz, has already announced that the matter will be addressed at the social dialogue table. “It is one more element that will be susceptible to reform,” she said on Monday. According to sources from the Ministry of Labour, the idea is to open this period of negotiation with unions and employers when the reduction of the working day is finalised. The issue is that within the Government there are other voices that, despite knowing the position of the European Committee, have been considering that Spanish legislation is already “coherent” with the Social Charter, so no modifications were foreseen, as indicated by the Presidency in a written response in Congress this June, which was not liked by Labour.
At the heart of these contradictions between the two parts of the Government is the coalition agreement signed in October 2023. In it, PSOE and Sumar committed to establishing “guarantees for workers against dismissal, in compliance with the European Social Charter”.
Source: www.eldiario.es
