This was determined by the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM) in a ruling on January 27 of this year, which states that if a company changes the workplace of a person with reduced working hours, and the new location involves a longer travel time, this “negatively affects the exercise of their right to reconcile”, included in articles 37 and 38.4 of the Workers' Statute, and also in the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European Social Charter.
“In business actions that in an “ordinary” work situation would have no significance, the perspective can change if they occur within the framework of a legally protected reduction in working hours and also in that of the reconciliation of work/family life that are at their origin”, according to magistrate Asenjo Pinilla.
The aforementioned ruling found in favor of an employee who had a reduced working day to be able to take care of her daughter from 9:00 to 15:00, and who the company moved to another more distant location, to a new center in which her travel time from her daughter's school to work increased from 35 to 80 minutes.
In this case, the employee asked the company to transfer her to another center closer, but the company assured her that there were no vacancies in the requested position, offered her to telework part of the day, but it seems that this was not the solution either, since the employee also had to transfer to the center for the in-person part of the shift, and the ruling expresses that the differences of 45 minutes per trip must be taken into account when adapting the duration of her day.