Justice reproaches that Ayuso skipped the unions to reward the “talent” of senior officials

A court has reproached the Community of Madrid for launching a supplement for a minority of senior officials without launching collective bargaining and bypassing the unions. The ruling agrees with CCOO and condemns the administration of Isabel Díaz Ayuso to redo the negotiation process to implement a supplement intended to reward the “talent” of officials at the highest levels from 26 to 30. The unions denounce that It was done irregularly, leaving out the vast majority of public workers in the Community of Madrid.

The five highest levels of the Madrid regional administration correspond to leadership or management positions, sometimes awarded in free appointment processes. It was last February when the General Negotiation Table of public employees agreed to a supplement to prevent the flight of senior officials and which, according to the unions, only benefited about 4,000 public employees, leaving out more than ten levels and 150,000 Madrid administration workers.

It was the Workers’ Commissions that brought this agreement to court and contentious court number 32 has partially ruled in favor of the union. The ruling understands that there has been “administrative inactivity” of the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Employment that has violated the right to freedom of association. In practice, the implementation of this supplement of up to 25% must be repeated but with real collective bargaining.

The resolution, which can still be appealed, reproaches the Madrid administration that there is no evidence that this complement “has been the subject of negotiation at the Table, although given its content it is a negotiable matter without direct legal normative effectiveness due to the existence of a legal reserve. material”. The process now, therefore, must return to that Negotiation Table but this time with a real conversation with the workers’ representatives.

The ruling also rejects other arguments of the union. For example, this supplement intended for a minority of public officials violates equality between these workers, which in practice does not force the Community of Madrid to grant it to the rest of the employees at more than ten lower levels. “A valid term of comparison is not provided, as they are different levels,” explains the court on Princesa Street.

From the union, its coordinator of the Public Area in Madrid Mariano Martín-Maestro celebrates the sentence. The court “has agreed” with the union and has “overturned” this decision to “pay without negotiating” the supplement. “It is being applied with discretionary criteria, without negotiation, without information to the unions about who is paid and with what arguments and conditions.” The union seeks, it explains, “legal certainty” and denounces that the “lack of transparency” turns this specific supplement for the highest levels into “a perk from the Administration that it can handle as it pleases.”