The Sixth National Collective Agreement for the hospitality sector sets the timeframe for a hearing prior to disciplinary dismissal at two days.

Almost two years after Judgment No. 1250/2024 of 18 November 2024, handed down by the Plenary Session of the Social Chamber of the Supreme Court, in which the Chamber revised its case law on the right of workers to be heard and to put forward arguments prior to the imposition of a disciplinary dismissal, the Sixth National Labour Agreement for the hospitality sector —Agreement code No. 99010365011900— expressly includes this guarantee in the third paragraph of Article 41.

We move from the Supreme Court’s case law to the relevant statutory provisions, in which the Sixth Labour Agreement expressly sets the time limit for submitting submissions and clarifies the worker’s employment status whilst the proceedings are ongoing adversarial proceedings.

The minimum number of days allowed for the processing of the hearing

In fact, not only does it set minimum timeframes for the completion of the hearing procedure – thereby removing some of the uncertainty regarding the time that must be allowed for the hearing to be considered valid – but it also requires the company to set out the alleged facts and specify their possible legal classification.

The express setting of a deadline

The explicit setting of a time limit is one of the key new features of the update and reform of the National Collective Agreement for the hospitality sector, as it introduces a standardised approach for all companies within the sector.

Specifically, it stipulates that the worker will have two days to reply by whatever means it deems appropriate, including through the involvement of the trade union or the company’s unified representative body.

The worker’s employment status whilst the preliminary hearing is being processed

Another of the new provisions introduced by the Agreement, concerning an issue not expressly addressed by the Supreme Court’s judgement, is the determination of the worker’s employment status whilst the preliminary hearing is taking place.

In this regard, Article 41.3 of the ALEH VI stipulates, as a general rule, that the employee will continue to operate as normal during the two days allowed for submitting representations, the company having the discretion to temporarily exempt her from performing her duties and grant her a paid leave.

Interim measures during the hearing proceedings

Furthermore, the provision empowers the company to adopt certain interim measures during the proceedings, including:

• Temporarily suspend access to the workplace.
• Block access to corporate email.
• Require the temporary return of tools or work equipment.

How to serve notice

As regards the method of notification, the Agreement stipulates that the notification must be made using the procedure normally employed by the company in its dealings with staff; we interpret this to mean that notification via both corporate and personal email would be valid.

Although no specific channel is required, it is advisable to use a method that provides reliable proof of both the full content of the communication and the date of its receipt, for the purposes of determining when the period for submitting representations begins.

A necessary piece of legislation, albeit still incomplete.

The introduction of the preliminary hearing prior to the Disciplinary regime of ALEH VI It represents a significant step forward in terms of legal certainty. However, the agreement leaves some issues unresolved insofar as It does not specify whether the two days granted should be counted as calendar days, business days or working days for the employee; nor does it clarify whether the day on which the notice is served should be included in the calculation or whether the calculation begins the following day.

Until there is a conventional or case-law interpretation that resolves this issue, the most prudent course of action for companies – and to ensure a genuine opportunity to defend themselves – will be to grant two full working days, excluding the day on which the notification is given from the calculation and ensuring that the time limit does not run entirely during rest days or public holidays.

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This article is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. A case-by-case assessment is required to evaluate a specific case.