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The information
contained in this Newsletter is of a general nature and does not constitute
legal advice |
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Prevention
of occupational hazards. Exposure to noise
Royal
Decree 286/2006 of 10 March, on the protection of employees´ health and
safety with regard to hazards deriving from exposure to
noise. Spanish Official Gazette, 11 March 2006 This
Royal Decree applies to those activities in which workers are or may be
exposed to risks derived from noise as a consequence of their job; its aim is
to establish the minimum rules necessary to protect employees against risks
to their health and safety
that derive or may derive from exposure to noise, and in particular, to their
hearing. This
regulation establishes: (i) an obligation on
employers to establish and implement a program of technical and
organizational measures to reduce employees’ exposure to noise when noise
levels exceed the upper exposure action values; (ii) various instructions
relating to risk evaluation; and (iii) rules relating to the surveillance of
employees’ health in relation to the risks they face from being exposed to
noise. In
addition, this Royal Decree implements the exception established in European
Directive 2003/10/CE. According to this exception, individual hearing
protectors need not be used when their full and proper use would be likely to
cause greater risk to employees’ health and safety, provided that certain conditions
exist and a serie of guarantees are in place. In
this regard, the employer must send the labour
authority the part of the risk evaluation that justifies this exception, as
well as an estimate of the length of time during which it expects these
circumstances will remain the same. In addition, each labour
authority must send to the Ministry of Labour and
Social Affairs a list of the exceptions that apply in its region, which is
subsequently sent to the European Commission. Dismissal.
Term to bring an action. Saturdays are not working days for procedural and
pretrial purposes
Judgment
of the Labour Chamber of the Supreme Court, dated 23 January 2006 In this case the Labour Chamber of the Supreme
Court (“SC”) analyzed whether the Saturdays that fall between the date of a
dismissal and the request for conciliation proceedings should be included in
the calculation of the twenty working days term to file a dismissal action. The SC
points out that all the days that make up the term of twenty working days set
forth in Article 59.3 of the Statute of Workers (“SW”) and Article 103.1 of
the Labour Procedure
Act (“LPA”) form part of the procedure designed to ensure
the dismissal proceeding is valid. As such, conciliation proceedings that
take place during these 20 working days do not interrupt the judicial
proceedings but rather form part of the same pursuant to article 182 of the
Judiciary Act. For this reason, the SC has overturned the
judgment of the Labour Chamber of the High Court of Justice of Andalusia
(Malaga), dated 27 January 2005 and, in order to unify case law, holds that
the Saturdays that fall between the date of dismissal and the filing of the
conciliation request are not working days. This judgment is particularly significant because
it is the first of the SC to unify case law since the amendment to the
Judiciary Act came into force that establishes that Saturdays are not working
days for the purposes of procedural deadlines. Widow’s
pension. Awarding of this benefit to a woman after the death of her partner
Judgment
of Labour Court number 3 of Palma de Mallorca,
dated 26 January 2006 In the
case at hand, Labour Court number 3 of Palma de Mallorca analyzed whether the claimant (a woman) had the
right to receive a
widow’s pension after the death of her female partner, who at the time of her
death was registered under the General Regime of the Social Security, making
contributions and meeting the requirements for the purposes of death and
survival benefits. The
claimant and the deceased were registered as a “de facto couple” in the
Registry of City Council of Palma de Mallorca as,
at that time, the law did not permit homosexual marriages (which are now
legal in Spain following the entry into force of Law 13/2005 of 1 July on the
modification of the Civil Code (“Law 13/2005”)). On the
basis of the foregoing, the claimant was awarded the corresponding widow’s
pension on the grounds that, following the entry into force of Law 13/2005,
the Tenth Additional Provision of the Civil Code is applicable by analogy to
the case at hand since the three requirements set forth therein were met: (a)
the couple lived together; (b) they could not have married before Law 13/2005
come into force; and (c) the deceased had died before Law 13/2005 came into
force.
The information contained in
this Newsletter is of a general nature and does not constitute legal advice |
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