The Prohens government readmits the guards who were expelled by Armengol for not knowing Catalan. During the plenary session this Tuesday in Parliament, the Minister of Health, Manuela Garcia, announced that the Health Service (IbSalut) of the Balearic Government would readmit the guards who had been excluded from the single pool in 2021 for not having a B1 in Catalan. The Health official indicated, in response to the parliamentary question from the deputy Vox Maria José Verdu, that the legal services of IbSalut are already studying the decision of the court of Palma which accepted the appeal of the professionals.
Garcia said the Executive would restore the rights of these workers. which were taken away from them by the Pacte government, which he accuses of “giving priority to their interests by drafting a decree to circumvent their own regulations.”
The councilor recalled that these professionals were governed by a decree which required them to have an A2, which years later became B1 when they were already registered in the single group.
Let us recall that a court in Palma ruled in favor of the guards who had filed a class action against the government in January 2021 after being excluded from the update of the single employment pool for not having a B1 level of knowledge of the Catalan language.
The Vox MP insisted that at the time of registering for the exchange the guards met the required requirements and accused the previous regional executive of prioritising language skills over professional experience.
As OKDIARIO has already reported, the Contentious Administrative Court number 2 of Palma has ruled in favor of a group of 24 goalkeepers who, in 2021, challenged the measure requiring a B1 level of Catalan after being excluded from the interim pool. This is the first condemnation of the Armengol government for the demand for Catalan from health personnel.
The guards had registered on the list called in 2018 by the Ministry of Health, where only the basic Catalan qualification, A2, was required, a qualification that could be accredited once the selection of personnel was completed. Subsequently, the government of the left pact chaired by Armengol modified the criteria and the process had already begun increased the level of Catalan required of all health personnel. It now imposes B1 Catalan as an essential requirement.
Then, the Ministries of Health chaired by the socialist Patricia Gomez, modified the bases of the call to prepare the pool of temporary workers and Around 2,500 people were removed from the list because they did not have the B1 certificate.
A group of 24 defenders excluded from the interim group opted for legal action and now the Court has ruled in their favour by reviewing the decision on the change of criteria regarding the Catalan’s nullity requirement. The judge says that The criteria that marked the initial call to prepare the interim pool could not be modified by order of the Ministry of Health.
The change in criteria regarding a greater requirement for knowledge of Catalan, according to the judge, could be applied to new candidates but never to those already admitted to the pool. Some of the dismissed temporary workers had been working for years for the public health of the Islands.
In August last year The Prohens government has removed the Catalan requirement for all healthcare workers. However, the current Ministry of Health had opposed the appeal presented by the guards, claiming that once the legal requirement was removed, they lost their meaning.
However, the Justice considers that it is not enough for the goalkeepers to re-apply to the interim pool but that the Government must put them back in the situation that prevailed before their exclusion. The judgment argues that the decree issued by the ministry in 2021 had no support and could not change the criteria that had been adopted for the scholarship.
