The European Commission has once again slapped Madrid on the wrist regarding the situation of temporary workers in the public administration. This Thursday, the Community Executive opened a new sanction procedure against Spain for “failure to protect public sector workers against the excessive use of temporary contracts”. Specifically, The letter refers to protection that it considers insufficient, such as in the case of compensation.
Brussels warns that Spanish regulations do not provide for preventive measures for certain types of temporary contracts in the public sector. This refers to the fact that the compensation is the same whether the employee has had a temporary contract for 20 or 30 years.
Furthermore, Brussels criticizes Spain for an employee under a temporary contract for 20 years resigning from his position, either to accept another job or to take care of a member of his family, You will not have access to any compensation, even if the succession of contracts was abusive.
In its letter, the European Commission reminded the government that Community regulations require Member States to introduce measures into their national legislation to avoid and, where appropriate, sanction abuses during the chaining of successive temporary contracts.
In this case, Brussels considers that Spain modified the legislation after the infringement procedure opened by Brussels in 2015 due to the temporary nature of the interim procedures. However, the European Commission considers that the changes implemented are insufficient national regulations, particularly in terms of sanctions.
With this letter, the European Commission opens an infringement procedure against Spain and grants it two months to remedy the situation. If the necessary measures are not implemented within this deadline, Brussels would send an ultimatum to Spain by sending it a reasoned opinion, which would give it an additional margin of two months. If you do not comply, Brussels could bring the issue before European justice.
It has been ten years since Brussels opened an infringement procedure against Spain concerning the conditions of temporary workers in the public sector. In July, it sent a reasoned opinion to Madrid, second phase of the process, for the disadvantages in which these public sector workers find themselvesin terms of vacation, seniority rights, permits and access to professional career paths.
Remember that the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled last June that the Administration must make temporary contracts permanent for years. European justice has indicated that Spanish law does not provide any form of sufficient sanction against the Administration for having abused temporary contracts with temporary contracts that last for years and considers that this conversion from temporary to permanent can ” constitute an appropriate measure to effectively sanction the abusive use of successive contracts.
Minimum rate of 15% for multinationals
The European Commission has taken a new step in the infringement case it opened against Spain for not having applied the minimum rate of 15% for multinationals. Brussels denounces Spain and three other countries before the Court of Justice of the European Union for not having notified the transposition of community regulations into national legislation.
The measure aims to establish an overall tax rate for large multinationals with turnover above 750 million euros. This is the second pillar of the application of global taxation within the framework of the agreement concluded within the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The Community Executive explained that it considers that the implementation of Pillar Two is a “priority”” because “it helps reduce the risk of tax evasion and ensures that large multinational groups pay a globally agreed minimum tax rate.”
The deadline for countries to apply this regulation to their national legislation expired in December 2023. A deadline which Portugal, Cyprus and Poland violated. At the end of last year, the Council of Ministers approved the minimum rate of 15% for large business groups. The regulations are currently under review in Congress.
