La estabilidad laboral reforzada de la mujer embarazada y en período de lactancia frente al despido en Ecuador

Abstract

Enhanced employment stability for pregnant and breastfeeding women constitutes an essential guarantee for the effective protection of the rights to work, equality, non-discrimination, maternity, and care. In Ecuador, this protection has undergone significant constitutional, legal, and jurisprudential development, moving beyond a strictly contractual understanding of employment relationships and recognizing that job loss during pregnancy or breastfeeding may place women and their children in a particularly vulnerable situation. This study analyzed the legal scope of enhanced employment stability for pregnant and breastfeeding women against dismissal in Ecuador, considering the Constitution of the Republic, the Labor Code, the Organic Law on the Human Right to Care, and the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court. A qualitative, documentary, and legal-dogmatic research design was applied using analytical-synthetic, exegetical, hermeneutical, and jurisprudential methods. The documentary search used the Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT to select legislation, case law, and specialized literature. The results show that enhanced employment protection does not guarantee indefinite permanence but rather provides special protection against termination decisions directly or indirectly related to pregnancy, maternity, or breastfeeding. Recent constitutional jurisprudence has expanded and clarified this protection regarding temporary contracts, freely appointed and removable positions, public companies, and special emergency employment contracts. It is concluded that Ecuador has developed a significant protective legal framework, although its effectiveness depends on the proper application of legal guarantees, adequate reasoning of termination decisions, and recognition of maternity and care as responsibilities that transcend the exclusively private sphere.