June 2025
The Insufficiency of Protection Against Unfair Dismissal in Spain
Adoption: 3 December 2024
Notification: 26 February 2025
Publication: 27 June 2025
I. Introduction
The Decision adopted on 3 December 2024 and officially published on 27 June 2025 by the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR), in Collective Complaint No. 218/2022, lodged by the Trade Union Confederation of Workers’ Commissions (CCOO) against the Kingdom of Spain, constitutes a significant pronouncement regarding the Spanish system of protection against unfair dismissal.
In this Decision, the Committee declares that said system is in breach of Article 24.b of the Revised European Social Charter, which pertains to the right to adequate redress or appropriate compensation in the event of unfair dismissal.
This commentary briefly outlines the legal grounds underpinning the Decision, analysing the dispute, the union complaint submitted, the position of the Spanish Government, the observations of third parties, the conclusions of the Committee, and the concurring opinion issued by Professor Carmen Salcedo Beltrán
II. The Dispute: Subject Matter of the Complaint
The present collective complaint was submitted by CCOO under the 1995 Additional Protocol to the European Social Charter, on the grounds that Spanish legislation concerning unfair dismissal infringes Article 24 of the Revised European Social Charter (hereinafter, the “Charter”).
Article 24 of the Revised European Social Charter guarantees workers the right not to be dismissed without a valid reason and, in cases of unfair dismissal, to receive adequate redress or effective and dissuasive compensation.
CCOO argues that the Spanish legal model for unfair dismissal—Articles 53.5 and 56 of the Workers’ Statute (Estatuto de los Trabajadores – ET) and Articles 110, 183 and 281 of Law No. 36/2011 Regulating Social Jurisdiction (Ley Reguladora de la Jurisdicción Social – LRJS), as amended—fails to meet this third requirement.
