The Council of Europe asks Spain to improve compensation for unfair dismissal

The Council of Europe asks Spain to establish a compensation system for unfair dismissal that it be a “deterrent” for companies and that it takes into account “the real damage” suffered by workers, once it has been considered that the current device does not guarantee it.

In a recommendation published this Wednesday, the Committee of Ministers, the decision-making body of the member countries of the Council of Europedemands a modification of the legislation, in accordance with the 2024 Annual Political Plan.

It is about “ensuring that compensation awarded in cases of illegal dismissal, and any scale used to calculate it, takes into account the actual harm suffered by victims and the individual circumstances where applicable.” The objective is to protect workers against this type of unfair dismissal.

The recommendation of the Committee of Ministers is a consequence of the opinion issued on July 29 by the European Council of Social Rights (CEDS) which declared the system of compensation for unfair dismissal to be irregular through a predetermined limit, which in practice is almost insurmountable.

The CEDS thus agreed with the General Union of Workers (UGT), which had filed a lawsuit on this issue in March 2022, and considered that Spain violates article 24 of the European Social Charterwhich refers to the right to protection against unfair dismissal.

This article stipulates that the worker has the right to compensation “proportionate to the damage suffered” and with an effect “sufficiently deterrent for the company.”

The CEDS decision has now become jurisprudence in Spain, which means that courts that have to settle disputes over unfair dismissals can now use it as the basis for their rulings.

That is, they can theoretically go beyond the compensation limits contemplated in the Workers Statuteand which so far has only been exceeded in a single case.

These current limits are 33 days per year worked up to a maximum of 24 months of salary, to which 15 days per year worked can be added up to a maximum of 12 monthly payments to take into account the concurrent circumstances and the damages caused by not readmission or irregular readmission.