La estabilidad laboral y cese del contrato individual por fuerza mayor o caso fortuito por covid-19, Ecuador

Abstract

The fortuitous event or force majeure is one of the ways by which the employment relationship ends, which is established in article 169, numeral 6 of the Labor Code. For this cause to operate, the events that occurred in the workplace must totally make it impossible to carry out business activities; In other words, the business must be closed, the company bankrupt, etc., otherwise the employer is obliged to maintain the employment relationship. During the State of Exception issued by Executive Decree 1017 of March 16, 2020, to mitigate the spread of COVID19, work activities were paralyzed. For this reason, certain employers applied the act of unforeseeable circumstances or force majeure to disengage workers, but there were certain cases in which work activities were not paralyzed and despite this, employment contracts were illegally terminated. arbitrarily and unjustifiably, the violation of the principle of labor continuity and the right to work in general, which affected part of the country's labor sector since at that time, Ecuadorian legal regulations were not enough to guarantee the principle of labor continuity Since the suspension of work activities was not allowed until the fortuitous event or force majeure is overcome, there was also no possibility of reducing the working day, alternatives that were presented after the State of Exception, which is analyzed within the present investigation from a practical theoretical approach.