Labor Matters 

​SITUATION 

• A multinational in the metal sector that saw its sales drop drastically. It had two production centers in different provinces and its volume was not sufficient to maintain both locations. 

CHALLENGES 

• Keeping up with the multinational’s production activity in Spain, making its business activity feasible. 

RESULTS 

• A workforce adjustment plan was drafted in order to close one of the factories, transferring some of the workers to the factory that remained active and concentrating all of the business activities there. Workers in the factory which was to remain active were also expected to be affected. 
• In the end, 75 jobs were written off and a pay freeze was agreed to in the factory that was to remain active for several years so as to guarantee the factory’s success. 

• Everything was carried out in agreement with the legal representation of the workers. 

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SITUATION 

• We have taken on various cases in which a company detects that an employee is stealing money, taking advantage of a weakness in its management system, or even misrepresenting information in commercial and/or accounting documentation. 
• We have also faced cases of staff members stealing merchandise from a company, taking advantage of their position as a trusted employee, and then using the company’s courier service to pass said merchandise to an accomplice who subsequently resells it online.

CHALLENGES 

• Obtaining enough evidence to prove workers’ disloyal actions beyond a reasonable doubt before the courts. Accounting and digital evidence have had to be collected and, in some cases, employees have even been allowed to continue acting in order to obtain more reliable proof. 

RESULTS 

• In all the cases in which we were notified of the problem before the company proceeded with the dismissal of the employee, said dismissal has always been considered rightful in the eyes of the law. 

​​​SITUATION 

• The company detected that an employee who was working for them primarily seated was performing rock concerts with his group in different venues throughout Spain while he was on temporary disability and supposedly not able to work due to a knee problem. 

CHALLENGES 

• Proving that the worker was not exactly carrying out exemplary knee care and that he was, in fact, prolonging his knee problems by performing punk rock concerts every weekend. 
• The situation was very complex because the dismissal letter had already been delivered, but without proof of the worker’s participation in the concerts during his medical leave. 

RESULTS 

• A search for concerts was carried out online on webpages that specialize in this type of music, making it possible to prove that the worker had done a concert in a city 300 km from his home, in which he was clearly seen jumping around the stage throughout the concert. 

• Despite the fact that the lower court ruling declared the dismissal to be wrongful because “it was not clear which leg he was jumping with,” the dismissal was approved as lawful by the court of appeals. 

SITUATION 

• The Labor and Social Security Inspectorate went to the company in question and asked to examine all of the time records from the companies belonging to the same business group. 
• The companies of the group were not paying overtime hours because the individuals involved were mainly office staff members, but the Labor and Social Security Inspectorate filed an infringement complaint for a value greater than €360,000, asking that social security contributions be paid for the hours. 

CHALLENGES 

• Avoiding the payment of social security contributions for overtime hours that were not paid to workers. 

RESULTS 

• After assessing several strategies, we used legal arguments to avoid paying social security contributions for overtime hours, with our client only having to pay contributions for occupational contingencies. Our arguments were accepted by the contentious-administrative court. 

SITUATION 

• It was suspected that a member of sales staff was tending to other businesses during his working day – a businesses unrelated to the company. 

CHALLENGES 

• Proving that the worker was using his working day for other activities, as well as proving his breach of contractual good faith. 

RESULTS 

• A strategy was established so as to not only prove that the worker was not fulfilling his obligations but also to demonstrate his bad faith in relationship with the company through a failure to fulfill other additional duties, causing the dismissal to be declared appropriate. 

SITUATION 

• We have dealt with numerous situations in which the company has needed to modify its working conditions, always due to a real cause that is usually related with their organization or production. 

CHALLENGES 

• Finding the exact organizational solution (within the legal limits) to adapt the means of production to market needs. 

RESULTS 

• We have undertaken an array of processes for the substantial modification of working conditions.  These processes are normally wrapped up in agreement with the legal representation of the workers, either within the company itself or before mediation services such as SERLA (the Regional Labor Relations Service). 

• At times, it is not possible to reach agreements but it is possible to modify the conditions in court, as happened in the case in which workers who had a contract for working only during the morning and afternoon shifts were asked to start rotating also in the night shift like the rest of their department colleagues.