What does the CJEU ruling mean for interim workers and how many public workers does it affect?

Daniel Viana

Alejandra Olcese

Updated Thursday, February 22, 2024-19:03

The Court of Justice of the European Union issued a ruling this Thursday urging Spain to make long-term interim public workers permanent, while confirming the "precariousness" and "abuse" of chaining. of temporary contracts.

What does the sentence mean?

Firstly, a notable blow by the EU to the way in which Spain manages and treats a very notable part of its public workers.

And, on the other hand, the Government is urged to convert interim public officials and workers into permanent ones.

Where does the sentence come from?

Of a case that confronts three workers with the Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Interior of the Community of Madrid, the National University of Distance Education (UNED) and the Madrid Agency for Social Care of the Community of Madrid.

The first two workers have been working under successive temporary contracts since 1994, while the third has done so since 1998.

And how many interims does it affect?

This is the big question.

Javier Araúz, a lawyer who has been litigating for years to obtain permanent employment for public workers, maintains that the figure would be more than one million.

"This ruling necessarily leads to the transformation into permanent employment of all public employees who are victims of abuse, since it rejects that the measures articulated by the Government of Spain or applied by the Social Chamber of the Supreme Court, such as the indefinite no fixed term, the possibility of compensation upon termination of the contract or the call for stabilization processes," explains the lawyer.

How do you get to that data?

Adding the 755,000 interim civil servants in Spain, plus the 360,000 temporary workers.

The Navas & Cusí firm, for its part, reduces the figure to 800,000 Spanish public employees.

But UGT very significantly reduces that figure, well below half a million.

He points out, on the one hand, that the ruling affects some very specific workers: non-permanent permanent employees.

"And the sentence is conditional," explains Isabel Araque, Secretary of Union Action at UGT Servicios Públicos.

What does the Government say?

For now, he does not offer a specific figure and points out that he "is studying" the sentence.

"The model that has been defined by the Ministry for the modernization and transformation of the Administration seeks to reduce the rates of temporary employment and precariousness that exist. For this purpose, the decision has been made, as indicated by the minister during his General Lines appearance in Congress , of eliminating the replacement rate and its replacement by the pension management of personnel", stated from the Ministry of Public Function.

Has the Government already taken any steps to reduce temporary employment?

Yes. Already in 2021, the then minister Miquel Iceta announced that 300,000 interim workers would become permanent and this, in fact, was a commitment that the Executive reflected in the Recovery Plan.

According to the Ministry now led by José Luis Escrivá, the forecast is that by the end of 2024 "75%" of that commitment will have been fulfilled.