MADRID, 13 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The second vice president and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, has sent a letter to the Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes, Félix Bolaños, in which she urges him not to interfere in the decision that the Committee must make. European Council of Social Rights on the cost of unfair dismissal in Spain, as reported by ‘El País’ and confirmed to Europa Press by sources familiar with the letter.
These sources explain that the Bolaños Ministry has requested the recusal of Carmen Salcedo, the Spanish expert on the European Committee of Social Rights of the European Council, just when this body is deciding whether the price of unfair dismissal in Spain is sufficiently dissuasive.
In his letter to Bolaños, Díaz asks the minister to withdraw this challenge and not interfere in the decision that the Committee must make as a result of the lawsuit that UGT filed against the Spanish Government because it considers that the cost of unfair dismissal in Spain does not correspond to the European Social Charter by being “affordable and not dissuasive” for companies.
Before her appointment to the position on the European Committee of Social Rights, Carmen Salcedo wrote an article in which she stated that the price of dismissal in Spain fails to comply with European regulations. Bolaños has asked for her recusal and Díaz has urged him to withdraw it.
UGT has been denouncing for some time that the Government, specifically Justice, were putting “sticks in the way” to delay the resolution of the lawsuit filed by UGT before the European Committee of Social Rights.
The general secretary of the union, Pepe Álvarez, said in mid-January that he had conveyed to Félix Bolaños his “displeasure” and “incomprehension” at the fact that the Ministry had “put obstacles in the way to try to delay the resolution”. “We know that this has been the case, because we have first-hand information that this has been the case,” the UGT leader said then.
At the parliamentary headquarters, Bolaños was asked about this issue at the end of February at the request of ERC. The minister then assured that there was “no interference” from his Department in the UGT complaint before the European Committee of Social Rights for the low price of unfair dismissal in Spain.
The ERC Labor spokesperson in Congress, Jordi Salvador, was interested in the “possible movements” on this matter in the Committee, since the Spanish representation in the organization “depends directly on the Minister of Justice.”
The UGT lawsuit against the Spanish Government was presented to the European Committee of Social Rights in May 2022 and was admitted for processing in July 2023. While other countries that have also denounced their legislation with similar demands have already obtained their resolution, the case from Italy and France, in Spain we are still waiting to hear the European decision.
In its complaint, UGT claimed before the Committee that, when determining the amount of compensation for dismissal, the personal and/or family circumstances of the dismissed person (such as age, sex, family situation) be taken into account. or the absence of training) by understanding that the damage caused by dismissal is greater when the worker belongs to especially vulnerable groups, which have more difficulty finding a new job.
CCOO also presented a similar claim before the European Committee a few months later, in November 2022, and it was also admitted for processing. For the Unai Sordo union, Spain does not comply with the European Social Charter regarding the protection that must be provided to workers against unfair dismissal, that is, without valid cause.
Spain is one of the signatories of the revised European Social Charter, which allows trade union organizations to submit complaints denouncing the unsatisfactory application of the Charter to the Secretary General and the European Committee of Social Rights of the Council of Europe.
Vice President Díaz has set herself as one of the objectives of this legislature to address the price of dismissal in Spain, an issue that was not addressed in the 2021 labor reform.
Díaz has stated on several occasions that the price of dismissal must be a deterrent and “repair the damage caused.” For the minister, the cost of unfair dismissal in Spain “is not expensive”, but “too cheap.”
