Two female postal service employees are suing Spain’s Postal Service over working conditions that they allege caused them to miscarry their unborn children.
The miscarriages occurred in Parla, a city to the south of Madrid. The first case occurred in 2011, when a woman presented her bosses with a medical report stating that she had a high-risk pregnancy that had been preceded by a miscarriage, and therefore asked to be permitted to avoid certain tasks at work. The second case, in 2012, involved a woman who already was in an advanced stage of pregnancy and also had written to her superior asking to have her job position changed during the pregnancy. Neither were accommodated.
The cases are being brought through the General Confederation of Labour, a trade union conglomerate that defends the rights of postal service workers. “Both workers had to distribute the mail under the intimidation of their boss, who told them that if they didn’t do it they would be reported to their superiors and would receive the appropriate sanctions for their disobedience,” the trade union states.
Ironically, the CGT is fiercely pro-abortion and has led recent protests against the current proposed laws to limit abortion.
The Court of Parla is considering the cases and will determine whether articles 316 and 317 of the Spanish Penal Code were violated. Those sections establish sentences between 6 months and 3 years for violations that “endanger the safety of the workers.”
Ten directors of the Spanish postal service were mentioned in the complaint. Among them are: Luis Pérez Capitán, director of human resources; Antonio Díaz Ruiz, subdirector of office for the promotion of health; and Manuel Alirangues Santos, director of medical services. The other seven are directors of Region IV, in which the women were working.
Besides the two aforementioned cases, the local court is investigating at least four other complaints made during recent years. All of these cases have to do with similar situations, which have been a common occurrence in the Spanish postal services and have not decreased despite the existence of an internal postal service protocol intended to protect the women and their unborn children in these situations.