The High Court of Justice of Galicia issued a judgment on 28 January 2026 clarifying that Ethical Codes and Conduct Channels do not have the capacity to automatically invalidate a disciplinary dismissal. The Court recalls that these instruments are unilateral mechanisms of corporate self-regulation which are not part of the sources of law listed in Article 3 of the Workers’ Statute and do not have a regulatory nature.
According to the ruling, these documents cannot impose additional formal requirements on the legal dismissal regime set out in Articles 54 and 55 of the Workers’ Statute, nor do they replace the prior hearing requirement under ILO Convention 158 as interpreted by the Supreme Court in its judgment of 18 November 2024. Internal non-compliance does not in itself render a dismissal unfair unless there is a legal, collective bargaining or contractual provision with regulatory effect to that end.
The Court also rejects the application of the doctrine of “own acts”, noting that a mere reference to the Ethical Code in the dismissal letter does not imply that the company has voluntarily adopted an alternative disciplinary procedure, nor does it amount to waiving its sanctioning powers. The hearing contemplated in internal reporting systems is configured as a safeguard linked to a specific investigation process, not as a mandatory step prior to any dismissal decision.
The company’s defense was undertaken by Sagardoy, led by partner Bruno Álvarez Padín and Sagardoy associate Vicente Fernández Vitoria.
