By Salvador Mut Ribes, Director of the Legal-Labor Area of Tomarial.
When the Royal Decree-Law 6 / 2019, of March 1, urgent measures to guarantee equal treatment and opportunities between women and men in employment and occupation Several topics were highlighted, among others, such as mandatory equality plans for all companies with more than 50 workers, the extension of the period of birth and care of the child for the other parent, the so-called salary registry disaggregated by professional groups and sex.
But one of the changes happened almost unnoticed, and is beginning to be a headache for many companies, This is section 8 of article 34 on the day of the status of workers, which develops the possibility that Workers with children under 12 years have the right to request adaptations in the duration and distribution of the workday, in the organization of working time and in the form of benefit, including the provision of their distance work, all this to realize their right to the reconciliation of family and work life.
The fact is that the rule allows us to open a bilateral negotiation between workers and the company, a negotiation that cannot last more than 30 days. Once the deadline has elapsed, your acceptance will be communicated in writing or your refusal will be expressed, in which case the company will indicate the objective reasons, which may be economic, technical, organizational and / or productive. From the refusal, the worker will have 20 days to sue the company in the Social Court according to the emergency procedure that regulates Law 36/2011. That is, once the lawsuit is admitted, the hearing must be held in five days and a sentence issued in three, against which there will be no recourse. The worker may only appeal if he alleges violation of fundamental rights. In these lawsuits the action of damages to the worker can also be accumulated as well as the moral damages, issues that are frequent in this type of demands.
The conflict is served, and the demands of the workers in the courts begin to accumulate. We must be attentive to the development of jurisprudence in this matter since it can mean a revolution in the organization of companies, with the consequent adaptive cost.
