The dlawsuit by two employees against a company that fired them led to a series of rulings that reaffirmed precedents regarding the scope of protection that the union immunity grants to workers, in a case that has been taken to the Constitutional Court.
He Labor Code established the figure of union immunity to avoid the unjustified dismissal and eviction of employees who are part of the board of their union.
However, a failure of the Labor court of the Judicial Department of San Pedro de Macorisratified by the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ), recognized this right to collaborators who belonged to a external employee association to the entity.
With this decision, suspended the dismissal of two employees, with the understanding that they were covered by the union immunity for being part of the union leadership of Progressive Drivers of the province of La Altagracia (Suchopa).
The company appealed the decision before the SCJ arguing that “that special protection It benefits the management members of a company union and not the management members of a company union. professionals“.
The judges of the Third Room They rejected the approach for the following reasons:
“The respondents were part of the union leadership of Progressive Drivers of the province of La Altagracia (Suchopa), composed of workers from different companiesamong whom is the now appellant, a circumstance that was also known to them, according to the aforementioned act. Therefore, they were certainly protected by the aforementioned guarantee and, consequently, the employer was unable to terminate the employment contract by dismissal without the prior authorization of the presiding judge of the Labor court“.
After obtaining an unfavorable ruling, the case was brought before the Constitutional Court (TC), which rejected a request for suspension of execution of sentence for reasons procedural, without going into the depths of the conflict, while knowing a review resource of jurisdictional decision.
He union immunity
The above means that this guarantee covers the employees who manage the three types of unions recognized by the Labor Code: company, professionals or by branch of activity.
This would apply to large unions such as those of teachers, doctors, journalistsengineers, lawyers, bioanalysts, nurses and others.
In addition to the council members manager, enjoy the union immunity the members of a union in formationup to a maximum of 20, as well as the workers’ representatives in the negotiation of a collective agreement and their substitutes.
The companies cannot evict, that is, unilaterally terminate the employment contract, to these employees. To carry out a justified dismissalwhich annuls the right to unemployment, must present evidence of the fault to the Labor courtwhere the judges will decide if it proceeds.
If this formality is not complied with, the dismissal is void and the employee must be reinstated.
