Unfair dismissal in the Spanish Workers’ Statute: European Committee of Social Rights Decision (29 July 2024)

Today, 29 July 2024, the European Comittee of Social Rights has released the full content of the Decision about unfair dismissal in the Spanish Workers Statute

On one side, the Committee welcomes recent developments in the Spanish case law where a right to possible additional compensation has been acknowledged in case of unfair dismissal. The Committee also notes that there have been several decisions of the domestic courts which carried out “conventionality control” and assessed the compatibility of the compensation scale with international treaties.

The complaint lodged by the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) was registered on 24 March 2022. On 14 September 2022, the Committee declared the complaint admissible. The full content has been released today, 29 July 2024.

Compasation in case of dismissal. Spain. European Social Charter

The Committee concludes by 13 votes against 1 that there is a violation of Article 24.b of the Charter.

On one side, the Committee welcomes recent developments in the Spanish case law where a right to possible additional compensation has been acknowledged in case of unfair dismissal. The Committee also notes that there have been several decisions of the domestic courts which carried out “conventionality control” and assessed the compatibility of the compensation scale with international treaties

However, it appears that the additional compensation was only awarded in one case and it seems that the practice has not been widely followed by other domestic courts. Moreover, the Government itself acknowledges that additional compensation in case of unfair dismissal is possible only in exceptional cases according to domestic case law, thus it would not apply in all cases of unfair dismissals.

The Committee considers that the ceilings set by the Spanish legislation are not sufficiently high to make good the damage suffered by the victim in all cases and to be dissuasive for the employer.

The real damage suffered by the worker concerned linked to the specific characteristics of the case may not be appropriately taken into account, not least because the possibility of additional compensation is very limited.

The Committee therefore considers that in light of all of the above elements the right to adequate compensation or other appropriate relief within the meaning of Article 24.b of the European Social Charter is not adequately guaranteed.

The Committee therefore holds that there is a violation of Article 24.b of the Charter.