Constitutional supremacy and labour judicial protection

Abstract

This article analyzes the tutela laboral from the perspective of its design and its operation, in order to verify whether it could be characterized as a channel for direct enforcement of the Constitution and ensuring the immediate horizontal efficacy of workers' fundamental rights, as part of the doctrine and case law (jurisprudence) has done it. The analysis outcomes shows that the protection of fundamental rights of workers through the tutela laboral is mediated by law: employment protection is a channel of indirect enforcement of the Constitution and guarantees mediate horizontal efficacy of fundamental rights. However, this result does not mean denying effect to the principle of constitutional supremacy in the context of the tutela laboral, because it is possible to understand it otherwise. If the supremacy of the Constitution is understood as the duty of the judge to apply the law in accordance with the Constitution, then there is an explanation of this principle that is consistent with the design and operation of the tutela laboral.