The Workers’ Statute, the law that governs all that happens between a company and its workers, will include a new labor right that benefits workers and their families and will enter into force in December. Specifically, starting on December 4.
Organic Law 5/2024, which will come into force once published in the BOE, includes an expansion of the indemnity guarantee for the employee in the face of a possible dismissal by the company.
Currently, Article 17.1 of the Workers’ Statute states that orders to discriminate and the employer’s decisions that lead to unfavourable treatment of workers as a reaction to a complaint made in the company or to administrative or judicial actions aimed at enforcing the principle of equal treatment and non-discrimination are void.
Family Members in the Same Company
This indemnity protection, which shields the worker who raises concerns against their employer to prevent retaliation, will be extended from December by Organic Law 5/2024.
Those family members who work in the same company will also enjoy protection. The law states: “It extends to the spouse, civil partner and relatives up to the second degree of consanguinity or affinity, who provide services in the same company, even if these individuals have not engaged in the action necessary to exercise their rights”.
In this way, neither the worker nor their family members can be sanctioned, punished, or dismissed for having exercised or enjoyed a right or for filing a complaint or reporting a workplace situation. If such sanctions occur, including against family members who did not participate in the action, these reprisals or dismissals are deemed null.
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That said, nullity is granted only when the worker proves that such reprisals, sanctions or dismissals occurred due to the exercise or assertion of a right.