New administrative controls in ERE. The Ministry of Labor has agreed with EH Bildu to give the Labor Inspectorate new competence to supervise collective redundancies, which will be regulated in the Employment Law, which is to be approved. The inspectorate will prepare a “mandatory” report in which it will examine whether the reasons that the companies claim to apply for these cases have been fulfilled. With this binding opinion, the workers will be able to oppose the ERE if they are not motivated, the Basque party and Vice President Yolanda Díaz emphasized long ago.
The measure is likely to be approved by Congress in the coming days. “Thanks to the Basque sovereign group, this time it will be included in the employment law, so that the labor inspectorate has a decision-making role in the supervision and control of collective dismissals, so that they obey objective reasons, additional protection of workers and workers. Workers who are at risk of starting an employment regulation file”, emphasizes EH Bildu.
The Ministry of Labor announced the change a year ago, included in the Labor Inspectorate’s 2021-2023 strategic plan, but the measure required a legislative change that has not yet been approved and will now be extended to the Employment Law.
Another form of administrative control
The Basque party, as well as other formations, demanded that the government return to the ERE the previous administrative powers that repealed Mariano Rajoy’s 2012 labor reform. Finally, another form of administrative control through the labor inspectorate has been agreed upon, sources familiar with the negotiations say, who see it as a further “guarantee”.
It will be the labor inspectorate that will monitor compliance with the legality of ERE cases, not the duty labor body headed by the Ministry of Labour. Thus, inspectors must issue a binding report on the correct motivation for collective dismissals, which will be a tool for unions and workers who want to challenge them in court.
“The labor inspectorate must be an authoritative voice that determines when the company claims objective reasons for dismissal that are not such, without waiting for the journey or trial that the workers will experience,” emphasized the representative of EH Bildu Oskar Matute.
As argued by the Ministry of Labor a year ago, the Basque formation believes that “it protects the workers more, because all these years they started their judicial journey without any guarantee”. This opinion “from a public body such as the inspection” is “a very important step”, the sovereign party emphasizes, because too often judges are guided by the assessment of the labor body.
It will be approved in the employment law
The measure will be included in the Employment Law, as was agreed yesterday when presenting the norm to the Congress of Deputies. “Yesterday it was approved through a transactional amendment with the PSOE and the UP,” they note in EH Bildu, who emphasize that a necessary measure for the Basque formation was to vote in favor of the legislation.
In particular, the amendment of Article 51.2 of the Workers’ Regulations will be included in the law. This change indicates that the labor authority will “compulsorily” collect a report from the Labor and Social Security Inspectorate, “which must be evaluated within fifteen days of notification to the labor authority. For inclusion in the consultation period procedure.
Specifically, the approved amendment details that the inspection report, “in addition to verifying the completion of the communication and the development of the consultation period, will determine whether the reasons stated by the company in the initial communication are consistent and confirm that the documentation provided by it is necessary based on the probable cause of the dismissal.
Source: El Diario
