Compensation on the basis of a fixed rate or à la carte? The reform of unfair dismissal proposed by the CEDS will modify the Workers' Statute.

The recent announcement of the recent decision of the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR), which considers that the compensation for unfair dismissal set at 33 days per year worked does not always comply with the principle of compensation established by the European Social Charter and Convention 158 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), has been made public in recent days.

Alberto Novoa, partner of the Laboutr department at RocaJunyent, believes that "the decision of the Social Council (CEDS) could lead to significant reforms in Spanish legislation, specifically in article 56 of the Workers' Statute and article 110 of the Law Regulating Social Jurisdiction". The reforms could be along the following lines:

Firstly, it speaks of the "extension of the compensation period: the number of days of compensation per year of service could be increased for unfair dismissals, exceeding the current limitation of 33 days. The government has already hinted at a return to the compensation levels prior to the 2012 reform, i.e. 45 days' salary per year of service".

Another issue that he believes could be reviewed is "the ceiling of monthly payments: the ceiling of 24 monthly payments could be reconsidered as a maximum limit for severance payments, returning as in the previous case to a higher ceiling, that of 33 monthly payments that existed until 2012, but I must reiterate that the arguments of the CEDS do not go along the lines of establishing a maximum limit".

Novoa warns that "it is also possible to set a minimum indemnity whatever the length of service of the worker: this was also pointed out by the government, which suggested the possibility of setting a minimum length of service of 6 months in any case".

In his opinion, "this would solve the problem of the termination of short-term contracts, but it would also fail to comply with the postulates of the foreseeable ruling of the ECSRC".

In his view, the reform could include specific criteria for calculating severance pay, taking into account factors such as the employee's length of service, age, individual and family circumstances, etc.

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