If you are experiencing delays in the payment of your wages, you can take certain measures to protect your labor rights.
If you are experiencing delays in the payment of your salary, you are not alone. It is a constant concern for many workers and is usually due to liquidity problems if it is not an IT or technical problem. However, if this situation becomes a continuous and habitual practice, you are entitled to claim compensation.
If the delays are too frequent or excessive, you have the possibility to request the termination of the employment contract unilaterally and receive a compensation similar to that of a wrongful dismissal.
As an employee, in those cases where the company delays in the payment of your salary, you can choose to request the termination of your employment contract due to the lack of payment or continuous and persistent delays in the payment of your wages, and without the justification that such delays are due to the bad economic situation of the company.
The employee cannot be required to accept and adapt to such delays by the company just because they are repeated over time in a foreseeable manner; it is sufficient that the delay is of a sufficiently important and serious nature. Therefore, and notwithstanding the liquidity problems or bankruptcy proceedings in which the company may find itself, the timely payment of wages to all its employees is a legal obligation. The worker must also bear other responsibilities, and the payment of his payroll in due time is essential for his day-to-day life, since such delays may even affect his housing payments, taxes and other payments of a personal nature.
But, how long does it take for such a delay to be considered particularly serious and prolonged? It is enough that the delay in the payment of your salary oscillates around 10-15 days per month, or it is a delay of a month or two during more than a year, or a delay of between 18 and 26 days in five or more pay slips.
Therefore, in those cases where the company does not comply with its obligation to pay the employee’s salary when due, is late in its payment (10.5 days on average over a whole year, which is particularly serious), and the company’s conduct is not sporadic but reiterated and persistent over time, leading, on occasions, even to opt for the payment of the employee’s salary in instalments, the employee may request the termination of his employment contract, being fully entitled to the corresponding compensation for unfair dismissal.
Identical reflection must be made from the point of view of the company, the delays in the payment of payrolls, the habituality in such circumstance causes a serious damage to the workers and can expose the company to a situation of special gravity, for the loss of the human asset and the important economic cost of the compensation for dismissal.
Cigarrán Lawyers continues to be at the disposal of its clients, attending to their needs in these and other matters. info@cigarran.com — Tel. (+34) 91 355 85 15
