The EU lawyer suggests that the abuse of temporary employment does not make it permanent

The pronouncement of another attorney general guarantees that interim workers do not receive compensation when they are replaced by the official who owns their position

More than half a million interim and temporary workers in public administrations were waiting to know if the European justice system considered that the abuse of interim employment would be sufficient cause to make them permanent. And it seems that the answer is: no. For now, these public sector personnel will continue with their temporary employment.

The general lawyer of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) announced last Thursday that the European regulations are compatible with Spanish jurisprudence, "in which the abusive use of successive temporary appointments by a public Administration is not automatically sanctioned with the transformation of the temporary service relationship into a permanent service relationship”.

However, what is known up to now is not the CJEU ruling but the conclusions of the general counsel, which, although not binding, are subsequently taken into account for the preparation of the final ruling. In fact, approximately eight out of ten judgments follow the line of what was argued by the general counsel.

This ruling responds to the demands of an interim temporary statutory computer scientist from the Madrid Health Service (Sermas) who has spent 18 years in that temporary position, and those of four dentists, also from the Madrid public health system, who have been chaining between 12 and 17 years. various temporary contracts. All of them demanded that the regional administration that employs them be sanctioned for having abused temporary hiring and that this sanction be their conversion into permanent staff.

In her argument, this lawyer considers that the Spanish norm is in line with the Framework Agreement that regulates these situations in Europe because the law in Spain can recognize the affected personnel a right to continue in the job until the employer has studied the needs of staff. And, on the other hand, this same Spanish regulation also recognizes a right to full compensation for the damages caused by the abuse.