Labor Newsletter - July 2023
The new social rights and covering their cost
Companies do not have an unlimited capacity to take on their new employment obligations.
News update
These are the social security rules applicable to workers relocated abroad
A new piece of legislation defines in detail the cases in which relocated workers will be treated as having registered status for social security purposes, such as in the absence of a bilateral agreement, where such an agreement does not apply to the specific case concerned, or the maximum period for keeping up contributions in the worker’s country of origin has ended.
Royal Decree 668/2023 amends the regulations on pension plans and funds
The royal decree contains, among other new legislation, implementation of the rules on simplified occupational pension plans, the rules on the non-discrimination principle and the provisions on merging plans where corporate transactions result in the same company becoming sponsor of more than one occupational pension plan or sponsor of an occupational pension plan and at the same time policyholder for one or more employee welfare and pension benefit plans.
The RED Mechanism for employment flexibility and stabilization created in the recent labor reform allows measures for the reduction of working hours and suspension of employment contracts. The legislation also amends the regulations governing collective layoff procedures by providing for six months’ notice in the case of closure of a center.
The law protecting whistleblowers requires companies with 50 or more workers to have an internal whistleblowing system in place and sets out fines of up to €1,000,000. We will be looking at this from various different standpoints: labor law, data protection, criminal law, corporate governance and anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing.
Basic equality and diversity obligations at a glance
The proliferation of equality and diversity regulations has meant that companies need to remain attentive to a whole set of obligations.
End of the extraordinary measures implemented in the workplace due to COVID-19
The order declares the end of health crisis and the termination of the extraordinary measures such as those related to the minimum interpersonal safety distance of 1.5 meters between workers or the promotion of teleworking, among others..
Royal Decree-Law 5/2023 transposes, among others, the EU Directive on work-life balance for parents and carers which, before the end of the legislative session, was passing through parliament as the Families Bill.
Publication of the V Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (V AENC)
The agreement is signed by CEOE and CEPYME, and the labor unions CC.OO. and UGT, and its objective is to promote collective bargaining.
On the radar
- The Ministry of Labor and the unions announce that they have signed the Interns’ Statute which has not yet been published
- Call for applications published for grant of the “Equality at the Company” badge and provisions adopted on said badgein R&D&I
- The Ministry of Labor reminds companies of their obligation to adopt preventive measures in high temperatures
- The Government approves the Annual Plan for Promoting Decent Work
- The European Parliament approves a resolution on strengthening social dialog
- New labor legislation comes out of the last Council of Ministers meeting
Judgments
- Justified dismissal based on faking sick leave after the employer informed that it was going to investigate a number of cash discrepancies
- The Supreme Court determines that the simple fact of denying the adaptation of working hours does not necessary imply discrimination based on sex
- The null and void nature of a dismissal is rejected where the decision was taken before the worker went on sick leave
- The right to freedom of association is not breached by stopping the actions of members of a works council who have been dismissed on disciplinary grounds
- The National Court supports a suspension of employment contracts based on the decline in demand in recent months and the adverse forecasts for the following year
Garrigues Labor and Employment and Sustainable
The procedure for a European regulation on ESG ratings has started
The initiative aims to strengthen the reliability, comparability and transparency of these activities.
With this vote, the European Parliament has taken another step in the approval of the Due Diligence Directive (known by the acronyms CS3D/CSDD), aim of which is to ensure that companies operating in the internal market adopt measures to identify, prevent, mitigate, bring to an end and remedy the adverse human rights and environmental impacts of their activities, as well as those of their subsidiaries or value chains.
Labor and Employment Blog
- What happens when an employee with an indefinite-term contract for seasonal work does not respond to the call to resume work?
- It is not a case of ‘everything goes’ when you are working from home: justice marks the red lines of remote working
- Is dismissal by email a possibility in Spain?
- ‘Telework-related accidents’: the fine line between work and personal life when your home is your office
- Additional severance to the statutory amount for unjustified dismissal: exception or general rule?
- New employer obligations to ensure equality for LGBTI and trans employees
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