A court in the Basque Country recognized the right of a worker to terminate his contract and leave the company with compensation of 165,059.17 euros, after years of conflict and successive refusals to telework and adapt his schedule to care for disabled parents.
According to the Spanish portal Noticias Trabajo, the case involves a head of the exports area, with seniority at the company since 1997. According to the facts proven, the worker submitted three requests for adaptation of working hours and teleworking (in 2019, January 2021 and May 2022) to be able to provide care for his parents, who are now elderly and with different degrees of disability. The company refused telecommuting requests; In the first case (2019), the worker went to court and a legal settlement was reached in February 2020.
What influenced the decision: psychosocial risk and duty to prevent
The court valued the psychological health component. The worker was on sick leave between November and December 2020 with a diagnosis of “adaptive disorder with anxiety”. The ruling also states that a ruling from the Juzgado de lo Social no. 5 of Bilbao, of April 22, 2022, considered this situation to be an accident at work, as there is a relationship between the pathology and the labor conflict described in the process.
A central element was an internal investigation that ended with a report dated 10/05/2021: workplace harassment was not proven, but psychosocial risk factors were identified and measures such as mediation and “monitoring and support” for workers were identified by the health department of the prevention service.
Despite this, the TSJPV emphasizes that the company did not carry out specific medical surveillance for psychological risk, limiting itself to medical recognition with standardized protocols.
The omission also had administrative consequences: the Labor Inspectorate applied a sanction of 8,196 euros for a serious infraction linked to non-compliance with proposals from the prevention services, but the ruling itself notes that the sanction was challenged and was, at the time, pending at the Juzgado de lo Social no. 7 in Bilbao.
Compensation “as unfounded dismissal” and framework for unemployment benefit
In practice, what was recognized was not a dismissal, but the worker’s right to obtain judicial termination of the contract due to serious breach by the employer, under article 50 of the Workers’ Statute. The compensation established (€165,059.17) was calculated as equivalent to that of an unfounded dismissal, as results from the regime applicable to this type of termination.
According to , the ruling is clear on one point: the lack of adequate protection of psychological integrity can justify the termination of the contract without the need to prove harassment or harassment.
Regarding “unemployment”, the framework does not result from an “attribution” of the court, but from the legal regime: the Spanish General Social Security Law considers the legal situation of unemployment to be the voluntary resolution of the worker in the cases provided for, among others, in article 50 of the Workers’ Statute (art. 267.1.a).5.º), allowing the benefit to be requested if the general requirements are met.
And in Portugal: what tools are there for those caring for family members?
In Portugal, there are different mechanisms depending on the case. For assistance to family members, the Labor Code (Law no. 7/2009, art. 252) provides for the right to miss work for up to 15 days per year to provide urgent and essential assistance, in the event of illness or accident, to a relative in the ascending line (such as parents), among other family members.
In teleworking, the Labor Code provides for the possibility of teleworking for workers who are recognized as non-primary informal caregivers, with rules and room for opposition by the employer under certain conditions (CT, art. 166-A).
If there is serious breach by the employer, the employee may terminate the contract with just cause, following the legal procedure (CT, arts. 394.º to 399.º), with compensation being possible under the applicable terms.
As for unemployment benefit, the Portuguese regime is based, as a rule, on the concept of involuntary unemployment and on conditions such as the guarantee period and other requirements (DL no. 220/2006). Each case must be evaluated according to legal assumptions.
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