Spain: provision allowing employers to use repeated sick leave as grounds for dismissal repealed

The law that repeals Article 52 (d) of the Spanish Workers’ Statute, which allowed employers to justify the dismissal of an employee by citing an accumulation of absences, even if they are justified and intermittent, was published in the country’s official journal on 16 July. The repealing of this article was demanded by trade unions in Spain, who mobilised in November 2019 over the issue (see article nº 11501). It was also one of the promises made by the coalition government – made up of the socialist and Podemos parties – when it took office in January 2020. Article 52 (d), which was introduced into the Workers’ Statute in 2015, permitted employers to use repeated absences as grounds for dismissal, when that time off reached 20% of the employee’s usual working time over two consecutive months and the cumulative total over the previous 12 months amounted to either 5% of the total working time or 25% over four non-successive months.