contradicts the Supreme Court of the Basque Country, which, after the government-approved rule on ERTEs, understood that they were banned and scammed
The Supreme Court is throwing a pitcher of cold water at one of the measures taken by the government during the pandemic: the ban imposed on companies from firing their employees. For example, the Supreme Court rules out the automatic nullity of the dismissal agreed without explanation during the Covid-19 crisis, according to a statement sent on Thursday.
In this way, the plenary session of the Fourth Chamber of the Supreme Court upheld the appeal against the ruling of the Supreme Court of the Basque Country that opted for annulment of the dismissals, on the understanding that they were prohibited and scam .
The problem arises because the Royal Decree of September 2020, betting on the ERTE as a solution to the business problems related to the pandemic, provided that “force majeure and the economic, technical, organizational and production causes in which the measures suspending employment contracts and the Shortening the working day cannot be construed as justifications for termination of the employment contract or dismissal, this is what is often referred to as the “ban on dismissal”.
The ruling, the text of which will be released in the coming days, concludes that the dismissal, ignoring the provisions of that rule, “should not be classified as void unless there is specific evidence to justify it,” such as the violation of a fundamental right, circumvention of the procedural rules on collective redundancies or the coincidence of a subjective circumstance that provides special protection.
The argument on which the Supreme Court relies is that neither the above rule contains a real prohibition, nor does the consequences of a fraudulent dismissal entail its nullity, unless there is an express normative provision (as in the case of circumvention of the collective redundancy). Likewise, going to the ERTE also doesn’t seem like a real obligation.
The classification of the dismissal as null and void is rejected because the relevant provisions ignore the presumption of fraud (except for “drop” redundancies that evade the collective extinction procedure).
The court is of the opinion that when a termination of the employment contract agreed by the company appears and has no valid reason, it must be qualified in accordance with the current labor law, both because of the specialty of this sector of the legal system and because of the reference to the Civil Code (whereby the acts that are contrary to mandatory and prohibition norms are regarded as null and void “unless they have a different effect in the event of violation”).
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
