“Conversion to landline is perfectly possible”

The long struggle of public sector interim workers to be made permanent still has a judicial plot for a while. Last Thursday, the lawyer general of the CJEU concluded that rejecting the conversion of these workers to permanent positions, as defended by the Spanish Supreme Court, It is not against European legislation. Of course (and this is very important), only “on condition” that Spain has at least “another measure” that “allows abuses of temporality in the administration to be avoided and punished.” Something that, judging by the brief presented by Advocate General Rimvydas Norkus, does not currently happen.

That “provided there is at least another measure” is what the dozens of interim platforms affected by abuses of temporary employment cling to to maintain that permanent employment is possible. “ANDThe attorney general says that the measure of conversion from temporary to permanent is perfectly possible and sufficient measure in those cases in which the contracting has not taken an excessively long time,” he tells Economic Information, Javier Ramón Sierra, partner lawyer at the BDO firm and representative of the Ansiti group.

Sierra defends that the CJEU brief “brings the colors to the Spanish State“and indirectly, to the courts of justice.” “It means that in Spain there is no sufficient and effective measure in the legal system to compensate interim or temporary officials.” According to Norkus’s writing, neither the stabilization processes so that interim workers can secure their position, nor the compensation granted to those who lose it are sufficient measures.

Neither It would be useful “on its own” to grant them the status of “non-fixed indefinite” (a figure that equates their conditions to other public employees, but does not grant them the position, which they can lose), which for Norkus is still a temporary contract after all.

Given the absence of measures in Spanish regulations that meet the requirements, The interim platforms understand that the only possible formula is to grant tenure. An extreme that would not even be enough to compensate the most bleeding cases of temporary employment, such as those of workers who spend 10, 20 or 30 years in this situation.

“In the most serious cases, The fixed conversion measure is the only one sufficient and another measure must be applied. It should entail compensation, not just make them permanent,” adds Sierra. For the lawyer, the solution would be to include permanent employment in a law and until it arrives, for the courts to grant it. Denying that permanent employment can be granted, he argues, “is opening doors to the sea and perpetuating a supreme injustice.” another worker,” he adds, something that would have no cost to the public coffers, he concludes.

Javier Arauz, one of the pioneer lawyers of the interim group and visible face of the movement, expresses himself along the same lines. “Conclusions lead us inexorably to fixity”maintains the lawyer in his analysis of the CJEU brief, in which he interprets that the Government and Parliament are obliged to legislate to make this conversion possible. “There is no other option than to agree to the transformation of the temporary relationship into a fixed one,” he points out, “even if this conversion is contrary to principles of constitutional rank,” he adds.

For Diana Vázquez, president of the Interin@s en Acción platform, the conclusions of the attorney general “are very positive,” she points out to The Economic Information. From this group they point out that, after consulting with professors in Constitutional Law, lThe only viable solution to the problem would be to create a type of contract called “fixed to expire”. Vázquez argues that the interims in fraud of law “have gone through a selective process” with the principles required by the Constitution.