Remaining challenges in the protection of pregnancy and the rights of family and work conciliation against dismissal

Abstract

Spanish legislation has legal institutions, instruments and techniques for the protection of the situation of pregnancy and the rights to reconcile family and work life that place it among the most advanced States in our environment. The successive legislative reforms that began with Law 39/1999 and have concluded with Royal Decree-Law 6/2019, have reinforced the protection of these rights, adding a second objective and automatic protection to the traditional discriminatory protection that has improved the provisions of the Community Directives. However, the border between both types of guardianship, its legal configuration and scope, as well as the correct identification of protected situations, is not entirely clear. On the other rand, in the case of a pregnant woman, who has given birth or is breastfeeding, tour legal system may not have correctly transposed art. 10.1 of Directive 92/85. The examination of the sentences handed down in the different judicial instances, will allow us to know the problems that the application of the second paragraph of the arts. 55.5 and 53.4 ET and identify the challenges that remain pending in this matter.