Employment - Legislative and case law developments

1. New Law on equal representation and a balanced presence of women and men amends Workers’ Statute

Basic Law 2/2024 seeks to strengthen equality and has introduced concepts into the Workers’ Statute such as equal representation and the obligation to achieve it in the representative, governing and administrative bodies of trade unions and employers’ organisations. It has also amended some of the provisions on dismissals to include among those that are considered automatically null the dismissal of workers who have taken any of the types of leave regulated in paragraphs 4, 5 and 6 of article 37 of the Workers’ Statute, and those who have taken leave to care for their children. This protection does not apply to workers who have requested a change in their working hours.

2. Occupational hazard prevention rights of domestic workers recognised by Royal Decree 893/2024

Royal Decree 893/2024 gives domestic workers the right to occupational hazard protection for the first time. It requires employers to carry out an initial risk assessment and to provide appropriate protective equipment free of charge. It also recognises the rights of these workers to participate in the management of their health and safety, to receive hazard prevention training, and to be protected against violence and harassment. If domestic workers abandon the home (place of work) to avoid violence or harassment, under no circumstances can this be treated as a resignation or as grounds to justify their dismissal.

3. European Committee of Social Rights finds compensation for unfair dismissal to be “insufficient” in Spain and that it breaches Article 24 of the European Social Charter

The European Committee has concluded that the statutory unfair dismissal compensation in Spain is insufficient to repair the damage caused to a dismissed worker and to dissuade employers from using this type of dismissal.

4. Supreme Court orders dismissed worker to pay ex-employer damages for libel

The Supreme Court has held that an ex-employee who published defamatory posts about his previous employer had damaged the company’s reputation by making libellous statements and ordered him to pay damages to the company in excess of the amount he was entitled to receive as a result of the termination of his employment relationship.

5. Receiving work emails during temporary disability leave does not infringe the right to digital disconnection

The High Court of Madrid has held that a worker’s right to digital disconnection was not breached due to her employer sending her emails while she was on temporary disability leave, even though she was receiving the same emails as her colleagues whose employment contracts were not suspended. The court considered that the worker was under no obligation to open or read the emails, and the company had not asked her to do so. Therefore, her right to digital disconnection was not breached and the company had not breached its occupational hazard prevention duties either.

6. Spanish Data Protection Agency holds company responsible for an employee data breach owing to its failure to take measures to ensure data security

The Spanish Data Protection Agency has confirmed that an employee working in a company’s human resources department was able to unintentionally send the payslips of all the company’s employees to another employee because the company had not taken measures to ensure the security of its employees’ personal data. The company was therefore liable for infringing its obligation to adopt appropriate measures to protect the confidentiality of its employees’ personal information.