Justice condemns Inditex preventing woman schedule change to care for her daughter - The High Court of Justice of Galicia (TSXG) has ruled in favour of a worker of Stradivarius (of Inditex), whose company denied her the possibility of specifying the working day to be able to reconcile and take care of her daughter. Condemns the company to the payment of compensation of 3,000 euros in damages.
In the judgment, to which the source has had access, it is noted that the worker had an indefinite part-time contract, of 36 hours a week in rotating shifts, in a Stradivarius store in A Coruña.
He remained on leave for childcare since November 30, 2019, and, on July 16, 2020, he informed the company of his intention to return to the job on September 14, 2020.
In turn, he requested a reduction of working hours to 25 hours a week from Monday to Friday between 10:00 and 15: 00 hours. The company agreed to the reduction, but not to the concretion of the day. The applicant therefore extended its leave of absence until 9 November 2020.
At first, the Social Court, on November 3, 2020, ruled dismissing the lawsuit filed. Faced with that judgment, the worker formalized an appeal.
Justice condemns Inditex preventing woman schedule change
On November 25, 2021, the TSXG ruled in favour of the applicant, pointing out that it should also be recognized the right to time concretion, "because this right must decline only in exceptional cases of abuse of rights, bad faith or manifest bankruptcy for the company".
The text also states that “it is an individual right, so it does not have to prove the existence of other mechanisms to reconcile family life". It is enough to prove, explains the Court, that he has a 2-year-old daughter who attends a nursery school from 9: 30 to 15:00 hours.
In addition, they emphasize that the company did not prove organizational reasons that go beyond the ordinary ones, which justified the refusal of the requested concretion, and must prove that more powerful and concrete reasons converge for the impossibility or difficulty of adapting the schedule, since it does not prove the impossibility or a damage of considerable gravity".
The unions argues the case justice condemns Inditex preventing woman schedule change
The union argues that “the violation of conciliation rights is part of Inditex's labour policy, so workers are forced to go to court permanently to enjoy their rights.”
Despite the firmness of this judgment and being sentenced to the payment of compensation, they comment, "the company has not changed its policy at all and continues to make it conditional to facilitate the rights of conciliation of its staff to prove that they have no other alternative care, such as a couple or another person in the family, who can take care of the child during his working day".
The delegates of the union point out that “the pretensions that move Inditex to act in this way are to save costs with the hours remaining from their day and salary to people who request the reduction of hours for reconciliation of family and work life; and on the other hand, generate discomfort and greater workload among the rest of the staff”.
Critics comment justice condemns Inditex preventing woman schedule change
Despite citing organizational reasons to deny this right, they argue ““the company does not supplement these reduced hours, nor with its own staff so that they can extend their working hours (since in most cases they have part-time contracts), nor with external staff.
With all this, Inditex saves these salaries and achieves with this systematic breach of the law a triple benefit: increase profits at the cost of exploiting workers with more workload, encourage divisions among colleagues for the exercise of the rights recognized in the law and deny the right to reduce their working hours by appealing to organizational causes to have more benefits.”
