2023-09-16 00:24:21
Saturday, September 16, 2023, 00:24
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In the last two years, Spanish legislation has made progress in the protection of pets, which are no longer “things” but “living beings endowed with sensitivity.” And they must also be integrated whenever possible into the family nucleus “in good health and hygiene.”
These considerations, included in the Civil Code and the recent Animal Welfare Law, increase the responsibility and obligations of pet owners.
Now, if a dog, cat, or any other pet is sick, needs to be taken to the veterinarian, or dies, does its owner have the right to take sick leave or benefit from paid work leave?
There are court rulings on this issue. On November 12, 2021, the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) declared inadmissible the dismissal of a worker who was absent from work to take care of his sick dog and take him to the veterinarian.
However, the sentence was not based on the dismissed employee’s status as an “animalist”, but because the court considered that the absence of one day from his job could not in itself constitute cause for dismissal.
In Italy, a worker in the Sapienza University of Rome He took two days off work to take care of his sick dog. Initially, the teaching center had counted those two days as her own business, so her absence was not justified.
The employee went to court, which upheld her right to take time off work under the Italian penal code, which criminalizes abandoning her family, or consenting to her suffering.
Legislative changes in Spain
In Spain, the modification of the Civil Code of 2021 and the Animal Welfare Law of this year could introduce favorable elements, especially in the event of litigation, for those who defend the right to take sick leave or work permits in order to care for their animals. company.
But, today, the Workers’ Statute does not contemplate that scenario. This standard was modified at the end of last June, by royal decree-law, to adapt it to the European directive on family care.
The legislative change involved the creation of new work permits and the expansion of other existing ones to, among other reasons, provide greater protection to de facto couples or people living together in the same household. «But always relative to people. It did not include any news related to pets,” says Guillermo Gumb, labor law expert at Estudio Jurídico.
“If the legislator had wanted to include animals, he would have done so at that time,” adds Gumb, who nevertheless believes that permits and sick leave could also affect pets “in the medium term.”
Of course, he considers that this door will surely open “via collective agreements, which include rights to address urgent pet situations. “They will begin to enter collective bargaining in certain sectors with more social sensitivity than others.”
There are, in fact, already some examples. Even prior to the approval of the latest animal protection regulations. Three years ago Barkyn, a company specializing in dog feeding, promoted the ‘Parents of Barkyn Dogs’ initiative, which offered paid ‘paternity’ leave to employees who adopted or bought a pet.
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