Holaluz, the energy marketer based in Barcelona, has been condemned by the Social Court No. 21 after its decision to eliminate teleworking for its entire workforce.
This measure, communicated at the end of 2024 and effective from January 2025, which put on the warpath to his staff leading to the resignation of more than 30% of employees. The company justified the measure by organizational and economic causesalleging a bad financial situation. Justice has ruled in favor of its employees.
It was a unilateral decision. According to a statement published by the CGT union, the court ruling comes after months of internal tension and after the lawsuit filed jointly by the union and the Holaluz works council.
The court has concluded that Holaluz did not provide objective and measurable evidence to support the complete elimination of remote workand that the decision violated the acquired rights of the staff, who had been enjoying five years of a flexible model and three with frozen salaries.
Reversible, but negotiated, teleworking. The Social court recognizes that teleworking was part of the contracts of Holaluz employees. That is, this modality was not given as a temporary or exceptional measure. in the wake of the pandemic.
In these contracts there was a reversibility clause that reserves the right to review and evaluate the teleworking model under objective circumstances linked to the suitability of the position in each individual case. However, the company applied the elimination of remote work across the board. alleging economic causes and the need to reorganize the way you work.
Furthermore, the ruling states that the company acted with little good faith in the negotiation, maintaining a rigid position and without accepting alternatives such as a consensual hybrid model. This lack of openness was reflected in the fact that Holaluz communicated the decision to the staff before closing the dialogue process, thus consolidating the unilateral imposition of the change.
It wasn’t just teleworking. In December 2024, Holaluz management informed its staff that it would completely reverse teleworking as of January 2025. This decision did not come alone as it was accompanied by the elimination of benefits for staff such as language courses and health insurance.
The set of changes produced in the working conditions of employees was presented as a Substantial Modification of Working Conditions (MSCT) for your entire workforce. The negotiations lasted two weeks and ended without an agreement, which led to the first strike in Spain called for the elimination of teleworking.
Forced to go to a distant office. The measure especially affected those employees who had either been hired under the premise of teleworking or who had moved away from the office.
The obligation to return to in-person attendance meant new transportation costs and long trips for many. Workers publicly denounced that the change sought to pressure employees to leave the company as a “covert ERE.”
Resignation with compensation. The judicial resolution not only declares the elimination of teleworking inadmissible, but also declares as justified the terminations of the contracts of those workers who resigned due to substantial changes in working conditions.
In accordance with article 41 of the Workers Statuteany employee who terminates his contract for this reason has the right to compensation of 20 days of salary for each year worked, with a maximum of nine monthly payments. This implies that dozens of former Holaluz employees who resigned after the elimination of teleworking will be able to claim this payment
In its statement, the CGT union describes it as “an important victory” for the recognition of labor rights, and assures that this case can set a precedent for unilateralism in eliminate teleworking options in Spain.
Image | Hellolight, Unsplash (myHQ Workspaces)
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