The TSJC approves a dismissal for refusing to return to the office after teleworking during the pandemic.

The High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has upheld the disciplinary dismissal of an employee who refused to work in person after a period of remote work due to the coronavirus, arguing that he had moved to another autonomous community.

In a ruling dated June 6, which Efe has already had access to, the Social Chamber dismissed the appeal filed against an August 2024 ruling by Barcelona Social Court No. 6.

The man joined the company in 2013 with a permanent, full-time contract as an engineer, with an annual gross salary of €45,000.

An “exceptional” authorization for teleworking due to the pandemic

Due to the pandemic, the company authorized employees to telework throughout the workday as a containment measure against Covid-19.

At the beginning of 2022, the company required employees to return to in-person work, but the man claimed that he had moved to another autonomous community—to Galicia from Barcelona, where he had lived until then—and that it was impossible for him to work in person.

In October of that year, he was notified of his disciplinary dismissal, which was ratified by the Labor Court and now confirmed by the High Court of Justice (TSJC), which has found that the company authorized teleworking on an "exceptional basis, coinciding with the pandemic," without any record of any agreement regarding the possibility of not coming to the workplace.

Express and repeated disobedience by refusing to go to work

Furthermore, it has been proven that the contractual relationship between the parties, which began in 2013, indicated that the employee would work at the company's headquarters in Cornellà de Llobregat, with no indication of teleworking, even partially.

According to the TSJC, the man ignored the company's requests and committed express and repeated disobedience by refusing to go to the workplace where he had been hired.