Objective dismissal and labour reform: background, legal framework and prospects after 2010 labour reform

Abstract

Labour flexibility and more particularly within it, the flexibility of the legal regulation of dismissal for objective reasons have been a recurring topic of critical importance in the political and social debate in the modern societies, especially in times of crisis.

The legal construction of this way for termination of the employment contract is the result of a historical process that took shape according to the various reforms that economic and social needs of the moment imposed.

The present moment in Spain is no exception. The deep and widespread current crisis has revived the debate and, finally, events have led to a new labor reform. The final result only can be explained with a global knowledge of the legal reality that precedes it.

Hence this study deals with legal analysis of termination of the employment contract for objective reasons from the perspective offered by the treatment that has received it in the various legislative reforms that have historically regulated it, from its origins to the latest changes introduced by the recent labour reform operated by Real Decreto-Ley 10/2010 and subsequently by Ley 35/2010, trying to understand in greater depth, the legal framework for this last reform, its true significance and possible implications.