The Supreme Court maintains its rejection of further compensation for dismissal and brings the talk nearer to the Constitutional Court | Economy | EUROtoday

The plenary session of the Social Chamber of the Supreme Court maintains its rejection of further compensation for unfair dismissal, as soon as once more. He already expressed his opposition in December 2024, once more in July 2025 and is doing so once more now by dismissing an annulment incident offered by the authorized illustration of the employee who misplaced in the summertime. It shouldn’t be a shock, for the reason that Supreme Court normally rejects the annulment incidents offered, however it will be important as a result of the order is a key preliminary step for the matter to succeed in the Constitutional Court.

This is among the thorniest debates within the Spanish labor dialog, with judicial and legislative derivatives. The present dialogue begins in 2021, when Spain ratifies the European Social Charter, a treaty that in its article 24 acknowledges the “right of workers dismissed without valid reason to adequate compensation or other appropriate reparation.” Some labor activists then interpreted that the system valued in days that applies in Spain (33 days per yr labored, 45 for the intervals previous to the 2012 reform; with a restrict of 24 month-to-month funds, 42 earlier than the change) contravenes this principle, since compensation, particularly briefly employment relationships, doesn’t should be compensatory.

Several courts and tribunals made the identical interpretation and awarded further compensation primarily based on the worker’s circumstances. This risk was reduce brief in December of final yr with a primary ruling from the Supreme Court and much more so in July, when the excessive court docket determined making an allowance for the ratification of the European Social Charter. This place of the Supreme Court (with which three of the 13 magistrates disagreed) was extremely criticized by the unions as a result of the European Committee of Social Rights, the Council of Europe physique in control of deciphering the Charter, has dominated twice (first in response to a declare from UGT after which in response to a different from CC OO) that Spain fails to adjust to this principle as a consequence of its system assessed in days.

Now, the Supreme Court dismisses the annulment incident filed by lawyer Raquel Miñambres. This lawyer defended a employee who was asking for added compensation from his firm. The Social Court quantity 3 of Barcelona had granted it, however the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia revoked it after an attraction. Faced with this resolution, the worker appeals, presents a contrasting ruling and requests unification of doctrine, taking as reference a ruling from the Superior Court of Justice of the Basque Country that did grant further compensation. The process reached the Supreme Court, which determined in the other way to that represented by Miñambres.

The lawyer, with the help of the UGT union, filed the annulment incident and it was admitted for processing on September 9. This step consists of a rare attraction to a ultimate ruling when contemplating that elementary rights have been violated. Specifically, the annulment incident offered by Miñambres believed that the basic proper to efficient judicial safety and in addition the precise to non-group or oblique social discrimination, each included within the Spanish Constitution, have been violated.

Just three months later, on December 9, the Social Chamber of the Supreme Court issued the dismissal order, to which EL PAÍS had entry. “Under the appearance of a violation of the right to effective judicial protection, it is nothing more than a discrepancy with the reasoning of the ruling and, also, with the doctrine of the Constitutional Court itself, which, at the time, declared the legislator’s option for a system of assessed compensation for dismissals to be in accordance with the letter and spirit of the fundamental norm,” responds the Supreme Court.

In the order, the court docket insists that article 24 of the European Social Charter shouldn’t be “directly executive”, however requires inner regulatory growth for its software. That is, he believes that the European normal urges the State to legislate, however doesn’t authorize the choose to exchange the nationwide legislation (the system assessed in days) along with his personal estimate of ample compensation. This demand to reform the rules was made concrete in November of final yr, with the Council of Europe’s request to Spain to proceed to “review and modify the relevant legislation”, with the goal of “guaranteeing that the compensation awarded in cases of illegal dismissal, and any scale used to calculate it, takes into account the real damage suffered by the victims and the individual circumstances of their case.”

Regulatory change

This petition, along with the resolutions issued by the European Committee of Social Rights (CEDS), helps the unions’ request that the rules be reformed. It is an goal that the Ministry of Labor shares, in favor of the evaluate primarily based on these Strasbourg pronouncements, but in addition by the PSOE and Sumar Government program. The events promise to “establish guarantees for workers against dismissal, in compliance with the European Social Charter.” And, for the reason that CEDS is the physique in control of deciphering the Charter, Sumar argues that addressing change is crucial.

The employers’ affiliation makes a radically totally different studying: they consider that the Supreme Court has settled the talk and that the legislative reform doesn’t proceed. Their opposition to the change is such that, after a primary assembly on the matter, CEOE and Cepyme introduced that they might not take part within the negotiation opened by the Ministry of Labor. CC OO and UGT are finalizing a joint reform proposal that they may current to Díaz’s ministry, with only a few choices to realize legislative outcomes.

The bosses’ rejection removes the potential for the right-wing majority in Congress supporting the change agreed upon by Labor and the centrals. In this case, sources aware of the positions of every get together keep that Junts wouldn’t be the one impediment, that the PNV wouldn’t comply with the change both. What’s extra, there’s not even settlement inside the Government: the Ministry of Economy, regardless of the promise of the Government pact, rejects the modification.

Beyond what Labor and the unions comply with and the legislative path that the venture has, the judicial path continues within the Constitutional Court. Miñambres and the UGT specialist who helps his initiative, the Deputy Secretary General of Union Policy Fernando Luján, point out, as they already indicated in the summertime, that they may file an attraction for defense earlier than the Constitutional Court. With this instrument, a person can report the violation of their elementary rights. However, the admission to processing of amparo claims could be very restricted. According to the studies of this court docket lately, the admission price is round 1% of all appeals offered.

With info from Nuria Morcillo.