The Council of Ministers approved on Tuesday the withdrawal of the medals of merit in work awarded to the former president of Novacaixagalicia Julio Fernández Gayoso and to the former president of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE) Gerardo Díaz Ferránboth found guilty 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 of social utility and exemplary in the performance of the duties imposed by the exercise of any employment, profession or service, habitually exercised.
Julio Fernández Gayoso, former director of Novacaixagalicia, was found guilty of improperly receiving an early retirement payment at the head of the entity, “which contradicts the principle of exemplarity required by the prize”, according to the department headed by Yolanda Diaz.
For his part, the former president of CEOE Gerardo Díaz Ferrán was sentenced in 2015 for the crime of seizure of assets, fraudulent bankruptcy, integration into a criminal group and money laundering to five years and six months in prison, a sentence that was ultimately ratified by the Supreme Court.
“Many withdrawal requests”
The book highlights that Díaz Ferrán’s conduct motivated “numerous withdrawal requests” of the Medal of Merit at Work, a request which will become effective as soon as the new ministerial decree withdrawing this decoration is published in the Official State Gazette (BOE).
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 This was repealed by Royal Decree 153/2022, of February 22, which approves the regulations of the medal and plaque of merit in work.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.
