The role of the law in the weighting of fundamentalrights in conflict (regarding the regulation of the right to adaptation of workingtime for reasons of reconciling work and family life)

Abstract

Spanish Constitution regards to the law the regulation of the right to adapta­tion of working time for reasons of reconciling work and family life. However, the critical issue in this matter lies in many cases on the judicial assessment of the family care needs of the employee and the organizational and productive needs of the employer. This paper shows that the legislator’s renunciation of the role of intermediation that is its own and the referral to the ordinary ju­risdiction of the weighting of conflicting constitutional rights and property also presents a serious handicap: ignores or it underestimates the cost in terms of legal certainty and judicial litigation involved in remitting the conflict to a judicial valuation ad casum.