If the employment situation is already complicated for pregnant workers or who have plans to be soon, today we learn a piece of news that adds more fuel to the fire: according to a ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union a pregnant woman can be fired in an ERE (Record of employment regulation).
Although pregnant women are protected against dismissals in the European Union (in Spain, in accordance with Article 55.5.b of the Workers' Statute, the dismissal of a pregnant woman It is null and void), this standard has an exception when the company carries out a process of collective dismissal in an employment regulation.
Of course, if the decision to terminate a worker's contract has to do with her pregnancy, in that case the dismissal would be illegal. According to the sentence:
"A dismissal decision that has been taken for reasons essentially related to the worker's pregnancy is incompatible with the prohibition of dismissal of community rules
On the other hand, a decision of dismissal that has been taken, during the period between the beginning of pregnancy and the end of maternity leave, for reasons unrelated to the worker's pregnancy It is not contrary to the European directive on health and safety of pregnant workers of 1985 if the employer Communicates in writing justified grounds for dismissal".
At the time of dismissal, the company must deliver in writing "the justified grounds for dismissal". In this regard, the sentence specifies:
"That the employer state in writing the reasons not inherent to the person of the pregnant worker for which he carries out the collective dismissal (among others, economic, technical, organizational or production reasons of the company) and indicate to the pregnant worker the criteria objectives that have been followed to designate the workers affected by the dismissal ".
Bankia Farewell
The case that gave rise to the sentence we are talking about dates back to November 2013, when Bankia notified a pregnant worker of the termination of her contract as part of a collective dismissal.
According to the company, the reason for the dismissal was that the province in which the woman worked required a staff adjustment and she had obtained a low qualification in the performance of her tasks. Then the former worker He denounced his dismissal by saying that it was illegal, because when they told her she was pregnant.
The woman turned to the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia, which raised the matter to the EU Court of Justice, which has ruled in favor of Bankia, sitting jurisprudence: with current regulations, any pregnant woman can lose her job in a collective dismissal.
"The directive does not oppose a national regulation that allows the employer to fire a pregnant worker in the context of a collective dismissal without communicating more reasons than those that justify this collective dismissal," said the CJEU.
And the protection of the pregnant woman?
However, the Court warns that "Member States have the power to guarantee greater protection for pregnant women" and that they must explicitly prohibit that, in principle, a pregnant worker, who has given birth or while breastfeeding, be dismissed, except in exceptional cases like that of this Bankia worker.
The European Union sets the stage, but each country has its own jurisprudence that, in theory, must protect the rights of the pregnant woman. This implies that if a country allows a pregnant woman to be fired in an ERE, it would not be contrary to European legislation. But of course, on the contrary, protecting it against collective dismissal would not be illegal either.
