The Social Court number 2 of Lleida has sentenced a company in the construction and transport sector to reinstate and pay back wages to a truck driver, who worked in a town in Lleida, whom it fired after he explained that he was going to be a father and will be interested in the necessary procedures to take paternity leave.
He was fired in March. The same day he announced that he would be a father, he received the letter of dismissal for disciplinary reasons with the corresponding compensation. He then filed a lawsuit against the company, considering that the dismissal should be declared null and void because it was discriminatory due to the enjoyment of the paternity benefit or at least inadmissible, as the company recognized, Segre has advanced.
The judge determines that the dismissal – initially alleging disciplinary reasons and, later, admitting that it was unfair – is null and void. Although the company stated that it was unaware that the truck driver would be a father, the ruling, to which La Vanguardia has had access, considers it proven that the employee had indeed discussed his future paternity with the company. He had communicated via WhatsApp to one of the company's partners permission to accompany his spouse to a medical visit, a blood glucose test that lasts three hours.
Furthermore, it is considered proven that the worker and one of the partners, who was also going to be a father, had a conversation at the quarry regarding the management of the paternity benefit, without the company representative giving the employee an answer to what was questioned. showing signs of anger.
The list of proven facts of the sentence also includes that a manager of the company, at a meal, in the presence of company workers, said regarding the worker's request for paternity benefit: “if I were the boss I would fire him and the ending the benefit would readmit him.”
Her lawyer assures that she has had several lawsuits for null dismissal in the case of men who have taken advantage of paternity benefits, “there is more equality with women and more cases are beginning to occur.
"Yes, it is true," he added, "that in the other cases we have reached an agreement because the worker did not want to return to work and it ended up being inappropriate and in an agreement, but if we go to trial and have the nullity declared, in our office It is the first case.”
The truck driver became a father on June 1 and received paternity benefits between the day his baby was born and September 20. He has to return to work this Wednesday.
