The Council of Ministers approved on Tuesday the withdrawal of the medals for merit in work awarded to the former president of Novacaixagalicia Julio Fernández Gayoso and the former president of the Spanish Confederation of Employers’ Organizations (CEOE) Gerardo Díaz Ferrán, both convicted by the courts for different crimes.
The Medal of Merit for Work, in its gold category, was awarded to Julio Fernández Gayoso in 2006, while Díaz Ferrán received it in 1999.
The Ministry of Labor, which proposed the withdrawal of these medals, recalled in a press release that this decoration is awarded “in merit for socially useful and exemplary conduct in the exercise of the functions imposed by the exercise of any position.” work, profession or service, usually exercised.
Former CEOE president Gerardo Díaz Ferrán was sentenced in 2015 to five years and six months in prison for the crime of seizure of assets, fraudulent bankruptcy, integration into a criminal group and money laundering, a sentence that was ratified by the Supreme Court as a last resort.
The Labor Party emphasizes that Díaz Ferrán’s behavior has motivated “numerous requests for withdrawal” of the Medal of Merit in Work, a request that will become effective as soon as the new ministerial order for the withdrawal of this decoration is published in the Official State Gazette (BOE).
Julio Fernández Gayoso, former director of Novacaixagalicia, was convicted of improperly receiving an early retirement payment at the head of the entity, “which contradicts the principle of exemplarity that the award requires,” according to the department headed by Yolanda Díaz.
The Medal of Merit for Work was created in 1926, disappeared under the Second Republic and re-established at the beginning of the Franco dictatorship by decree of March 14, 1942. Its regulations were then replaced by decree 1817/1960 of September 21.
During the Democracy, this decoration was maintained, whose regulations were approved by Royal Decree 711/1982 of March 1. This was repealed by Royal Decree 153/2022, of February 22, which approves the regulations of the medal and plaque of merit in work.
Article 10.1.a) of the latter rule provides that this award may be revoked when it is proven that the conduct and career of the person or entity awarded are incompatible with the civic and professional exemplarity required to obtain the award and, in particular, when it is proven that the beneficiary, before or after the award, is found responsible for acts constituting an offence or an administrative offence.
