The ruling confirms the compensated termination of the contract for abusive working conditions, harassment and work overload that affected the employee's health, also imposing compensation for moral damages.

The appeal 58/2024, filed against the sentence handed down by the Social Court No. 2 of Madrid in the ordinary procedure, is resolved (orders 482/2023).

The plaintiff, Ms. Enriqueta, had worked in an insurance company since September 6, 2020, initially being in charge of processing claims for a client insurance company. As of May 2021, he progressively assumed more responsibilities, including the complete management of damage recovery files, using the client entity's own IT tools and answering telephone calls.

Between August and September 2021, the company announced the implementation of a penalty system for delays of more than 23 seconds in answering calls, which further increased work pressure. At the end of 2022, a total of 4,411 files were managed, although the team had only grown from 3 to 5 members, being insufficient to cope with the workload.

In March 2022, Ms. Enriqueta received brief training on “criminal compliance” and data processing. Subsequently, on December 14, 2022, he was subject to a disciplinary sanction that was withdrawn after a conciliation agreement.

On January 5, 2023, he began a medical leave due to Temporary Disability, after having received specialized psychiatric care since July 2021. In June 2023, a psychiatric report confirmed that his health condition was affected by abusive working conditions, harassment and violation of fundamental rights. Pharmacological treatment was intensified in September 2023 due to symptoms of anxiety, depression, insomnia and fear of the future.

Ms. Enriqueta, in the statement of claim, requested the termination of the employment relationship in accordance with article 50 of the Workers' Statute. In the instance, the violation of his fundamental right to physical and mental integrity was recognized (article 15 of the Spanish Constitution). The initial ruling, clarified by a subsequent order, established compensation of €24,600.71 for the termination of the contract and an additional compensation of €10,000 for moral damages.

The company filed an appeal, which was challenged by the worker.The main question to be resolved It focused on determining whether the worker had the right to terminate her contract with compensation, with additional compensation for damages due to the violation of her fundamental right to physical integrity by the company, by assigning her an excessive workload. The company alleged several reasons in the appeal, including irregularities in the processing of the case and in the evaluation of the evidence.

The lower court ruling concluded that the company compromised the worker's health by increasing the workload without increasing sufficient human resources, which affected her physical well-being. Furthermore, the company's activity coordination was aware of the situation and did not carry out a risk assessment or implement specific measures for stress management, providing training to prevent damage and avoid risks. Also, he highlighted that the “criminal compliance” training provided by the company was insufficient, which caused clear damage to Ms. Enriqueta's health.

The TSJ of Madrid, dismissed the company's claims, considering that there were no irregularities in the judicial process,affirming that the lower court ruling made an interpretation and application of the regulations completely in accordance with the law.

The Court maintained the interpretation of the instance, the worker was subjected to a risk situation that represented a violation of the fundamental right to physical integrity of art. 15, in a business practice that, in this case, the company failed to fulfill its duty to protect the health of the worker by overloading her with an excessive workload, impossible to assume, without applying adequate prevention measures, which constituted unjustified and reprehensible non-compliance with the regulations for the prevention of occupational risks.

In the sentence,cites previous jurisprudence of the TSJ of the Canary Islands of 4.6.2018, appeal number 1739/17 in which it is stated Psychosocial risks are work contexts with a high probability of damaging the health of workers. According to the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, these risks include aspects of the design and organization of work that can cause physical, mental or social harm. Work overload is an example of a psychosocial factor and stress is an example of a psychosocial risk, which can lead to damage, which is the injury or illness caused by the failure to prevent the causative factors (physical ailments or mental pathologies, anxiety, depression, etc.).