A legal act can be retroactive.
The etymology of the term retroactive takes us to the Latin retroactum which, in turn, comes from retroagĕre : to make something go back . The concept is used as an adjective to describe that which has an impact on an issue that has already happened .
Delving deeper into its etymological origin, we can determine that it is the result of the sum of several clearly delimited Latin parts:
-The prefix “retro”, which means “backwards”.
-The word “actus”, which can be translated as “carried out”.
-The suffix “-ivo”, which is used to indicate an active or passive relationship.
Retroactive concept
Retroactivity (that is, the condition of retroactivity) appears frequently in the field of law . A legal act is retroactive when it can be applied to past actions . In this way, based on the enactment of a law that is retroactive, events that occurred in the past can be judged, when said law did not yet exist.
It should be noted that, in criminal law , there is the principle of non-retroactivity . This criterion is maintained so that a person cannot be punished for an action that, when it was carried out, was not prohibited by law . In any case, when the new law represents a benefit for the accused, accused or convicted, retroactivity can be applied.
Take the case of a man convicted of a crime that, a year later, is repealed through a new law that is retroactive. As this law acts on past events, the subject who had been convicted can take advantage of it and his sentence is void.
Retroactivity can be applied to a payment.
Payment type
In the same way, we cannot ignore what is known as retroactive payment, which is the payment of the difference between the amount that was paid to a worker and the amount that should have actually been paid. That is, it would be the payment of an amount to the employee for work he or she performed and for which he or she was paid for a lower amount than the corresponding amount.
This type of payment, which is generally included in payrolls under the concept of arrears, arises as a right for different reasons and reasons, among which are the following:
-Due to current working conditions not applied, such as a company's agreement stating that the employees' salaries were going to increase by a certain percentage each year and this has not actually happened.
-So they are updates to the salaries established through collective agreements.
-Because failures of different types have been detected in the working conditions or contract of the worker in question.
-Because the employer makes the decision to establish a retroactive payment as a salary increase in recognition of the effort made.
Retroactive salary increase
A raise can also be retroactive. Suppose that, in the month of March, a government announces a 15% salary increase for all state employees, with this increase being retroactive to the month of January.
This means that, to the salaries already collected between January and March, a 15% increase is applied that the State must proceed to pay.