More than five years to resolve a dismissal: the UGT denounces how procedures in labor matters are being prolonged in Catalonia

Barcelona1,882 days, equivalent to five years and two months. This is the time a Catalan worker will have to wait before the trial for their dismissal begins. And it is not an isolated case: according to a report prepared by the UGT of Catalonia, among all dismissal cases that exceed six months of waiting – a time that the union considers "acceptable" for proceedings to begin – they are, on average, extended by 574 days, that is, one year and seven months. With the data from the study – which collects 1,499 cases – the UGT has denounced the delay that workers suffer once they initiate a lawsuit.

And this situation is not only experienced with dismissals. In fact, in other labor proceedings, it is even more accentuated. If we look at the average delay of all lawsuits, the time until a trial date is reached extends to 646 days, which is approximately one year and nine months. The most blatant case is that of a worker who made a claim for an amount concerning Social Security: from the moment they filed the lawsuit until the trial, 1,922 days will have passed. These delays in proceedings, according to the union, "discourage claims" and "increase inequalities between companies and workers." It is worth remembering that the study has not taken into account claims that are resolved in less than six months.

If the data is broken down according to other possible reasons, as indicated by the UGT of Catalonia, "the longest waits are concentrated in conflicts related to professional rights, benefits, and recognition of labor rights." Specifically, those experiencing the longest delays (760 days on average) are workers claiming recognition of a higher category or adequate professional classification. They are followed by claims for determination of contingencies (731 days), proceedings for amounts and rights (725 days), claims for amounts (719 days), and claims for recognition of rights (715 days). In terms of volume, however, dismissals continue to be the main reason for conflict between workers and companies, representing 24.2% of the procedures analyzed by the union.

13 new courts in Barcelona

The UGT's analysis of the bottleneck in Catalan courts indicates that the majority of cases exceeding the six-month deadline are concentrated in Barcelona. Specifically, out of the 1,499 procedures analyzed, 1,087 will be tried in the Catalan capital. Following Barcelona are Tarragona (82 procedures), Granollers (76), Girona (58), Terrassa (51), and Sabadell (44). For this reason, the secretary of union policy of UGT Catalunya, Òscar Riu, has explained that they estimate that to solve the situation in Barcelona, about 13 new courts would need to be created in the capital. "It is not a criticism of the judges, it is a criticism of political neglect," he assured.

According to the union, to this situation of "collapse," we must also add a "loss of rights" since the labor reform approved in 2012, which eliminated, among others, the processing salaries for unfair dismissals. As Riu explained, this provision meant that the time elapsed until the sentence had an economic cost for companies. "The employer feels stronger," assured the secretary of union policy, who has called for their recovery.