When the case is not a dismissal but the shift calendar
Nextica Law & Tax defends the industrial company in the cases it actually faces, which are almost never individual. A calendar change, moving from two shifts to three, or reorganising annual working time run through art. 41 of the Workers' Statute and end up as a collective dispute claim under arts. 153 ff. of the Employment Procedure Act, with a judgment that reaches the entire workforce at once. Alongside it, the silent case: the job classification claim of someone who has spent years performing the duties of a higher group than the one they are paid for, with the metal agreement as the measuring stick. And the agreement opt-out under art. 82.3, which is lost on procedure before it is lost on the merits.
The claim does not come from one person: it comes from the shift that was changed without opening the consultation period.
What's included
1. Classifying the dispute first
if what is at stake affects the general interest of a generic group of people, it goes as a collective dispute even where it arrived as an individual claim.
2. Documentary reconstruction of the change
the decision minutes, the notice to employee representatives, the calendar before and after, and the actual rotas for the months in dispute.
3. Reviewing the consultation period where the change was collective
the committee's composition, minutes, documents handed over, and whether there was good-faith negotiation or just one meeting.
4. Defending job classification claims with the evidence that decides them
work sheets, production orders, signatures, and who sets up the machine versus who loads it.
5. Quantifying the knock-on effect before litigating
how many people are in the same position, and what unbarred pay differences a successful judgment would pull in.
6. A strategy for pre-trial conciliation and mediation before the relevant body, with the cost of each scenario put into numbers.
7. Implementing what was agreed or ruled on the calendar, which is where the dispute returns if it is not properly carried into the rotas.
A COLLECTIVE DISPUTE JUDGMENT REACHES THE WHOLE PLANT AT ONCE
And it is not lost on the merits: it is lost on what was not done before deciding.
Changing shifts, hours or the distribution of working time without a consultation period where the change affects a number of people above the legal thresholds: the court never assesses whether the reorganisation made industrial sense, because it annuls it on procedure.
art. 41 of the Workers' StatuteTreating as individual what is collective
where the matter in dispute affects the general interest of a generic group, the route is the collective dispute process, and the judgment takes effect for everyone affected even if they did not sue.
arts. 153 ff. of Law 36/2011 on Employment ProcedureOpting out of the collective agreement by company accord without exhausting the procedure: the opt-out has its own route, with a consultation period, an exhaustive list of grounds, and referral to the designated bodies where there is no agreement. Without that path, the accord falls and the agreement's terms apply retroactively.
art. 82.3 of the Workers' StatuteFrequently asked questions
We are moving from two shifts to three. Is that a substantial modification?
Shift work is expressly listed among the matters in art. 41 of the Workers' Statute, and so are working hours and the distribution of working time. If the change affects a number of people above that article's thresholds, it is collective, and then there is a consultation period with employee representatives before deciding, not after. Skipping that step is the fastest route to a judgment of nullity: the court never gets to assess whether the reorganisation made industrial sense, because it annuls it on procedure.
An operator claims he has been doing a senior fitter's job for years. What is examined?
What is done, not what the contract says. Job classification is decided by the duties actually and predominantly performed, and the metal agreement describes which tasks belong to each group. The evidence is documentary and testimonial: work sheets, production orders, who signs what, who sets up the machine and who only loads it. It is worth reviewing the whole workforce before the claim arrives, because a successful judgment pulls in everyone in the same position, with retroactive effect on unbarred pay differences.
Cases we have worked on
- industria
Reestructuración de un grupo familiar sin conflicto
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