The Government has responded to the European Committee of Social Rights in Strasbourg, following a claim by the UGT that argued that the compensation for dismissal in Spain is not fair enough, and, to the “disappointment” of the union led by Pepe Álvarez, it What it has done has been to defend the current model of severance pay, without expressly supporting the union’s request to modify it.

“The allegations of the Government of Spain have caused us great disappointment. We did not expect the Government to make a defense, which we see as clumsy, of the maintenance of the response system against unfair dismissals that is in force. The Government, in a slightly contradictory letter, as I think it is the Government itself: it has come to point out that in Spain there is indeed an adequate response to unfair dismissals and it tries to limit possible cases of injustice to very specific cases of unjustified dismissals”, explained Fernando Luján, deputy secretary general of Union Policy, after making public the allegations of the Executive and the employer before Strasbourg.

Given the explicit support that the Second Vice President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, has given in recent months to a possible change in compensation for dismissal in the country, within the union they trusted that the Executive would send some allegations to Strasbourg in line with what was expressed by UGT. However, the Government has not opted for that path and in its response, signed by the State Attorney, it is reluctant to possible changes.

When the European Committee asked him for allegations, the Executive requested an extension of the deadlines to send a response, which could be an indication that there have been differences within the Government itself that have delayed the taking of a position, a process that has resulted in an opinion different from Diaz’s.

“They even include a statement that has caused me astonishment that says that the increase from 20 days per year worked in dismissals justified for economic, technical, organizational and productive reasons to 33 days is sufficiently dissuasive, as if that prevented firing any company “, Luján lamented.

UGT has also regretted that the Government has argued that the possible reform of severance pay was discussed and settled within the framework of the labor reform negotiations, something that the union believes is “false”.

“Frankly, for the government and employers to argue that one of the issues is that this debate was settled in the 2021 reform is to lie directly and it is not an argument that has the least solidity,” Pepe Álvarez, secretary general, denounced.

The employers, CEOE and Cepyme, also pointed out this issue, in addition to alleging that historically the system has worked like this in Spain and that currently the worker is exonerated from having to justify the damage.

The responses of the Executive and the employers will be taken into account by the European Committee of Social Rights, which will now have to study the vision of the three parties and issue a resolution. Before April 14, UGT can again present a response to these allegations.

Faced with claims from France and Italy, this body has shown itself to be favorable to the unions, even though the Executive and employers in those countries were also reluctant in their allegations, as in the case of Spain. “In the Italian and French cases, the position of the governments and employers was the same as the Spanish one, and that was not an obstacle for me to agree with them,” Luján confided.

In any case, its resolution does not expressly oblige a legislative change to take place, so given the Government’s response, the change of the system in Spain could now seem further away.

Even so, even if there is no change in legislation, the UGT spokesman recalled that the courts are already taking into account the European Social Charter in their rulings, which in practice in some cases authorizes higher severance pay to the appraised

“The European Social Charter has already begun to be applied. In January 2023, last month, the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia raised compensation to 48 days per year worked, applying it, which is what we ask of general way for all Spaniards, with which the application is immediate.Everyone is clear that the resolutions of the European Committee of Human Rights are applicable and enforceable in Spain, since the social part, which is called the European Committee of Social Rights, must operate in the same way”, recalled Luján.

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