The Supreme Court dictates that companies cannot fire before opening a prior hearing process

The Plenary Session of Chamber IV of the Social Supreme Court has issued a unanimous ruling establishing that companies cannot disciplinaryly dismiss their workers without opening a prior hearing process, although it specifies that this is only required for new dismissals.

The High Court indicates that the company must offer the worker the possibility of defending himself against the charges made against him before adopting the termination of the employment contract for disciplinary dismissal.

In this way, the Supreme Court modifies its own doctrine, established in the 1980s, due to the changes that have occurred in the Spanish legal system since then, citing among them the International Treaty Lawthe constitutional doctrine, the qualification of the dismissal and the inapplicability of the most favorable norm globally.

This decision is based on the need to directly apply Article 7 of Convention 158 of the International Labor Organization (ILO) of 1982, in force in Spain from 1986. Said ILO convention requires this hearing prior to dismissal “unless it cannot reasonably be requested of the employer”, which happens in the case that is the subject of the ruling.

The disciplinary dismissal of a teacher from the Balearic Islands

Specifically, the Supreme Court’s ruling is based on the disciplinary dismissal of a professor from the Fundació Escola Superior D’art Dramàtic of the Balearic Islands that was reported by the students for inappropriate behavior with female students.

The professor appealed his dismissal, although the court initially ruled against him. He subsequently appealed to the Social Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands, which, in a ruling dated February 2023, declared the dismissal inadmissible and condemned the Foundation to reinstate the worker under the same conditions as before. of the dismissal and the payment of processing salaries or, alternatively, the payment of a compensation of 64,178.28 euros.

The Fundació de Balears then formalized an appeal for the unification of doctrine before the Supreme Court. As stated in the ruling of the High Court, the company was protected by a jurisprudential criterion that, having persisted over time and in relation to that same provision, freed it from the requirement to hold a prior hearing before disciplinary dismissal.

The Supreme Court affirms that it is “valid for dismissals that occurred before this ruling was published.”