The qualification of the dismissal of employees in situations of 'long-term' temporary disability in the current doctrine of the Supreme Court: Supreme Court Sentence of March 15, 2018

Abstract

After the European Court of Justice ruling of April 11, 2013, from different doctrinal and judicial forums it was immediately considered that this ruling must have an impact on the treatment that had been received until the contract terminations (mainly due to the employee's illness) when this could be equated to a disability. Thus a dismissal based on the employee's poor health should no longer be qualified as wrongful or unfair dismissal. Despite the initial disenchantment that the first rulings issued by the Supreme Court in this matter provoked in all who defend treatment different from that for unfair dismissal for employees on temporary disability, the High Court does seem to have in some way recognised the European Court of Justice doctrine. The time factor, that is, the duration of temporary disability, has been incorporated when equating this situation with that of disability. In this context, the Supreme Court ruling of March 15 2018 which is the subject of this comment is precisely incorporated. Despite not assessing an illness similar to a disability in the prosecuted case, the court still considered that this would have been the case had it deemed the worker's temporary disability "a lasting future situation".