The revitalization of the protection of the reviled Dauoidi doctrine in the wake of law 15/2022 on equal treatment and nondiscrimination

Abstract

The CJEU judgment of December 1, 2016 in the "Daouidi case" was the last touchstone in a protectionist construction of sick workers who were unfairly dismissed. However, this doctrine had little depth in Spanish case law, whose maximum interpreter, the SC, concluded that illness cannot be considered as a discriminatory factor in the scope of the employment contract, except in very specific cases, making a restrictive interpretation. Law 15/2022 has been a clear step forward, modifying this criteria and placing the disease, or health condition, on the same level as the rest of the causes of discrimination included in Article 14 EC. In this paper we will analyze the jurisprudential evolution of the anti-discrimination framework and the impact that the new law has on the unjustified dismissal of sick workers.