Pérez-Llorca and ICADE create a Debate Classroom on Labor Law, Compensation and Benefits  

With the aim of becoming a meeting point for professionals linked to the field of Labor Law to discuss current issues, Universidad Pontificia Comillas and Pérez-Llorca have signed an agreement to set up the ’Pérez-Llorca/ICADE Debate Classroom on Labor Law, Compensation and Benefits’.
The subject matter of the first session was the recent amendments to the Criminal Code with an impact on Labor Law.
During the first day of this Debate, María José López Álvarez, Professor of Labor Law and Social Security at Universidad Pontificia Comillas - ICADE, emphasized that "the purpose of this initiative is to create a space for reflection, opinion and exchange of views on current issues in Labor Law with a cross-cutting perspective".

Luis Enrique Fernández Pallarés, partner in charge of the Labor, Compensation and Benefits area at Pérez-Llorca, pointed out that the purpose of this conference is "the practical dissemination of current issues in the field of Labor Law with a critical spirit, in order to generate a constructive debate".

Criminal Law and Labor Law, confluences and divergences

Moving on to the subject matter, Fernández Pallarés went on to describe how in recent years there has been a significant increase in the production of labor law regulations, with texts that are sometimes ambiguous, forcing judges to make a greater interpretative effort. This scenario, the Pérez-Llorca partner pointed out, "is leading us to situations in which issues that are not resolved in the labor field are trying to be resolved through the criminal justice system. An example of this is the recent modification of article 311 of the Criminal Code, which is generating a host of doubts".

Speakers María Soledad Serrano Ponz, Secretary General of the Economic and Social Council and Inspector of Labor and Social Security, and Ángel Javier Muñoz Marín, Public Prosecutor and Coordinator of Social Security and Health at Work, then took the floor to present different arguments on the suitability of criminalizing conduct considered as administrative offenses, and highlighted the figure of the employee as an extremely important legal asset which, in their opinion, must be protected. They also reflected on what would happen if certain labor offenses were not criminalized.

With regards to the referral of matters from the social order to the criminal one, the speakers pointed out some of the most frequent ones, such as failure to register with the Social Security, crimes against the Social Security due to the amount of the debt, or those related to the Prevention of Occupational Risks. Likewise, Serrano Ponz and Muñoz Marín highlighted the excellent relationship existing between the Labor Inspectorate and the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the fluidity of the common work between these bodies.

Returning to the recent and much commented modification of article 311 of the Criminal Code, the speakers pointed out that this is a very novel precept and that it has not yet been applied, but that it is already generating some doubts derived from its wording. By way of example, Serrano Ponz and Muñoz Marín wondered whether a single breach by the employer could give rise to the criminal offense or whether this precept, when it mentions formulas outside the employment contract, refers only to false self-employed or false trainees. Consequently, both concluded that it is important to keep a close eye on how this controversial article will be interpreted and applied.