Labor creates paid leave of up to four days for climate catastrophes

The Government plans to approve this Thursday a new paid work permit of “up to four days” for situations of climate catastrophes, the Ministry of Labor informs elDiario.es. This is a new right to be absent from work with 100% of the salary paid by the company that has been promoted by Vice President Yolanda Díaz so that it is guaranteed in a stable manner in the legislation in the event of possible meteorological emergencies such as DANA in the Valencian Community, for which the Government has regulated extraordinary leaves of absence.

The decree that the Council of Ministers intends to approve this Thursday, with more aid to alleviate the catastrophe in the Valencian Community, as Pedro Sánchez announced this Wednesday, also includes new labor rights for the long term, with an eye toward future climate emergencies.

First of all, this new work permit will be incorporated into article 37.3 of the Workers’ Statute, which regulates paid leaves such as five days for serious illness or hospitalization of family members, as well as 15 days for marriage, among others.

Specifically, “up to four days” of paid leave are recognized for situations in which it is not possible to get to work due to travel limitations by the authorities or due to serious and imminent risk, including situations derived from a catastrophe or phenomenon. adverse weather.

In cases where teleworking is possible, the company may establish remote work, indicated in the Ministry of Díaz, complying with the obligations provided for by law and, in particular, the supply of the means and equipment for the development of the company. activity.

After four days, ERTE due to force majeure

After the four days of “climate permit”, as they are called in the Ministry of Labor, this may be extended until the circumstances that justified it disappear, although companies will have the possibility of applying an ERTE due to force majeure to stop paying the costs. salaries and that it is the State that assumes the payment of benefits to the workforce.

In Labor they highlight the importance of recognizing this right of absence in a stable manner, so that workers know in advance their rights in the face of a possible meteorological emergency.

The “climate permit” of up to four days is somewhat less extensive in its justified absences than the one urgently regulated by the DANA of the Valencian Community. In this, several very specific situations were regulated, such as the right to miss work to look for missing relatives, attend to cleaning tasks in the usual home and to care for family members, among others.

Protocols must be negotiated to prevent

The Ministry of Labor has also included some more measures in the decree that will be approved this Thursday, to expand prevention and workplace safety in the face of weather alerts, increasingly frequent due to climate change, they recall in the department of Yolanda Díaz.

Thus, a new obligation is established for collective bargaining to negotiate “action protocols” with risk prevention measures “in the face of catastrophes and other adverse meteorological phenomena.” A mandate that will cover “all collective agreements”, indicated in Labor, and that will allow staff and companies to be clear about how to act if an emergency of this type occurs.

In addition, the Ministry led by Yolanda Díaz undertakes to regulate within a period of twelve months a regulation “on the protection of workers against the effects of climate change in the workplace.”