Employee Leave & Contract Suspension: Rights and Regulations

Employee Leave: Rights and Categories

Leave is a right for workers to temporarily not provide their labor services to the enterprise. Unlike employment contract suspensions, leave does not always guarantee job reservation. In some cases, workers only retain a preferential right to re-enter the same or similar vacancies within their category that may arise in the future within the company. Types of leave are classified as:

• Compulsory Unpaid Leave Explained

  Occurs when a worker assumes a public office or association role that prevents attendance at work. The law preserves the job during the contract suspension, with a duty of reinstatement within one month after leaving the office. This period counts towards seniority.

• Parental Leave for Child Care

  This is a contract suspension to care for a natural or adopted child. Either parent may request leave for up to three years for each new child, as recognized by the ET (Workers' Statute). This leave reserves the job and counts towards seniority.

• Family Care Leave Provisions

  To care for a family member up to the second degree of consanguinity or affinity who cannot care for themselves due to age, accident, or illness, provided the family member does not engage in any gainful activity. The employee may apply for leave of up to two years. This leave includes the right to keep the job.

• Voluntary Personal Leave Guidelines

  Any worker with at least one year of service in the company may apply. The leave duration must be at least four months and a maximum of five years. (The employee may request new leave only once, provided four years have passed since the completion of the previous one). There is no right to job reservation here, but a right to re-entry into a similar category vacancy if one becomes available in the future. If, after the leave period, such a vacancy arises, the contract length resumes, unbound by the suspension period (unlike active status). Conversely, if, upon completion of the unpaid leave, no such vacancy has become available or the position has been eliminated, the suspension is considered illusory, and it effectively becomes a contract termination. Naturally, a collective agreement may, as a general rule, condition the right of voluntary re-entry on the existence of a vacancy.

Employment Contract Suspensions

Suspensions by Parties' Agreement

• Worker-Initiated Suspensions

  Absence motivated by the exercise of public office or union representation governs contract suspension; the worker must return to the company within one month after leaving the office. A lawful strike is a simple suspension that does not extinguish the contract. Also included is the decision of a worker forced to leave their job due to being a victim of gender violence.

• Employer-Initiated Suspensions

  Unpaid suspension, regulated by sectoral rules, often punishes serious offenses. Additionally, the ET (Workers' Statute) allows for contract suspension due to the 'legal closure of the company,' known as a lockout.

• Mutually Agreed Suspensions

  Just as parties to an employment contract may agree to its termination, they may also agree to its suspension, either at the time of hiring or afterward, as is the case with redundancies, which are discussed below.

Suspensions Independent of Agreement

• Force Majeure & Business Reasons

  Both force majeure events and economic, technical, organizational, or production reasons can lead to the suspension of affected collective labor relations.

• Worker's Deprivation of Freedom

  While there is no conviction, deprivation of liberty has a purely suspensive effect, not an extinguishing one. Consequently, a worker 'preventively detained' who is acquitted or has the proceeding dismissed is entitled to resume their post. If a conviction occurs, the employer is entitled to consider the contract terminated, potentially as a disciplinary dismissal due to unjustified repeated failures to attend work or absences for days of imprisonment.

• Health, Maternity, Paternity Suspensions

  Employment situations involving illness or injury resulting in temporary disability, as well as situations of pregnancy risk, maternity (16 weeks), and paternity (13 days), also suspend the contract. Upon leaving the state of suspension, the employee is entitled to resume their job, which will have been reserved accordingly. Failure to reinstate after the suspension determines the termination of the contract.