Spain: Work Permits for Animal Care Gain Ground Through Case Law

The ruling of the Social Section of the Court of First Instance of Barcelona (seat no. 25), dated 28 January 2026 (ECLI:ES:TIS:2026:2) has declared the disciplinary dismissal of a contact centre worker to be unfair, considering that, of the four absences charged as unjustified, only two could be classified as such.

The company based the dismissal on four absences in the same month, invoking the sector’s collective agreement, which classifies three or more unjustified absences in a month as a very serious offense.

The court analysed each absence individually, applying the gradualist theory, and concluded that:

• The absence due to an emergency visit to the veterinarian for the euthanasia of her dog after a sudden deterioration should be considered justified.
• Another of the absences was not proven, as the work record was unreliable.
• Only two absences could be considered unjustified.

As the threshold required by the collective agreement was not reached, the dismissal was declared unfair.

The novelty: The ruling considers that, although neither the Workers’ Statute nor the applicable agreement provides for specific leave for such cases, the absence was:

• unexpected,
• urgent,
• unforeseen,
• and motivated by humanitarian reasons.

The court expressly links its reasoning to Law 7/2023, which recognizes animal dignity and sentience, integrating these parameters into the analysis of disciplinary proportionality.

This is, unless I am mistaken, the second ruling in the Spanish social order that recognizes the legal relevance of the human-animal bond in the context of disciplinary dismissal (following a precedent set by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia in 2021).

Therefore, this ruling marks a new milestone in the interaction between labour law and animal welfare and leaves the future uncertain, since, as long as there is no specific regulation, this type of conflict will continue to be resolved on a case-by-case basis, with the consequent legal risk for companies and workers.