In less than three months, Joaquín’s (withheld) work life has completely changed in Guayaquil. It was in July of this year when he received a ‘clean’ warning for unjustified absences.

Note that your boss explained this legal figure to you in 5 minutes and you also had 48 hours to sign or declare default. “I didn’t sign, they used strict legal conditions as if they wanted to exert pressure,” says Joaquín, who worked in the telecommunications field.

The associate was informed of this ‘approval’ and took his own lawyer, who recommended it to him prepare a document with background and evidence in your favor: “What they were pointing out was a lie and a false pretext to separate me from the company without the right to a proper liquidation.”

Joaquín already felt what the big reason was. The man, 39 years old, is the father of a girl with disabilities, which makes it a special job. And that, in accordance with the Organic Law on Disability, in Article 51, in case of unjustified dismissal of a person with a disability or a person who is obliged to support a person with a disability, must be compensated with 18 months of best compensationwith the corresponding legal.

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“They tried to make up this excuse. The main motive was that the company wanted to illegally terminate my services and They wanted to avoid paying a fee for that special protection“, says Joaquín and adds that after this he received a hearing notice and defended himself. The process was in his favor and he was reinstated.

When he returned, the workplace harassment began and he sought help. His lawyer advised him and now it was Joaquín who initiated the procedure for termination of employment by consent.

“A hearing was scheduled, evidence was presented, and when they were cornered, they were practically forced to offer a percentage, which was advised by my lawyer, he saw that it was not right, managed to come to an agreement and suggested that I do it formally in front of the center for mediation,” says Joaquín, who is in that space after the dialogue between both sides, They gave him a check for his settlementwhich was lower than the law.

“I will continue with my life, giving therapy to my daughter. Even though justice was not served in the end, I don’t think it’s worth the deterioration of my health.“, says the worker, who He experienced nervous breakdowns and panic.

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Joaquín’s story is one of many that come to that mediation centers, which are located in the Ministry of Labor or the Judicial Council, as well as in other public institutions, according to labor experts. The request to resolve the labor dispute is not always initiated by the employee, but also by the employer, he explains labor lawyer Vannessa Velásquez.

“It is a voluntary process in which the worker can send an invitation to the employer to sit down at the dialogue table in which they act. You can appear alone, you don’t have to be with a lawyer, and the employer does that too. They have a third party that is an intermediary“He is impartial, knowledgeable about labor issues, and what he will seek is to reach an agreement that does not violate rights,” Velásquez claims.

According to figures from the Ministry of Labour, by September 1,069 job mediations have been developed in the country, who reached an agreement. In 2022, there were 1,290, and in 2021, around 1,772, that is, between these periods there was a decrease of 482 mediations.

He labor lawyer Lenin Duque indicates that these meetings, which according to him are better than going to court, have different motives as pending payments such as benefits, employer’s pension, social security contributions, among others.

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“Going to the mediation center means ending the problem. This mediation procedure must be carried out before a labor judge, which means debt collection, not a trial as such,” Duque points out and adds that Full agreements are optimal, although they can become partial, that is, when something is waiting. as the employer’s retirement, but liquidation is recognized.

As part of these consensuses, this is also the way in which the settlement is annulled. For example, in Quito, a citizen, who preferred to reserve his name, went to one of these mediation centers and his settlement was $8,500. It was agreed that this amount would be paid in ten installments of $850 each, according to a document from the National Judicial Reconciliation Center.

However, the parties do not always reach a consensus. The Ministry of Labor records 35 impossibility of agreement from January to September 2023; in 2022, there were 75; In 2021, there were 39 of them.

In these cases, whoever acts as mediator has no other option but to file a deed of impossibility, Velásquez says, and therefore the parties are free to initiate legal proceedings. “There are cases when an employer requests mediation for a confidentiality agreement and may require the worker to fulfill trust functions or to return pending value,” adds Velásquez.

Meanwhile, according to Duque, a worker who fails to reach an agreement through the mediation center can file a lawsuit up to three years after the termination of that employment relationship.

Among the work cases that can be solved at the National Center for Reconciliation of the Judicial Function are: