In the offices of the San Bartolomé de Tirajana City Hall, December 28, 2024, was not a day for jokes, but rather a day of administrative rigor that has ended up in court. An employee with more than three decades of service—whose career began in May 1992, when the world was a very different place—received his termination letter while recovering from a stroke suffered just a month earlier.
The case, which has just been decided by the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC), highlights the flaws in Law 20/2021 on the stability of public employment: a law designed to reduce temporary employment that, in its implementation, can destroy entire careers. The administrative tragedy of this worker, declared "permanent but not tenured" by a court ruling in 2017 after years of illegal labor transfer, began with a bureaucratic paradox. When the position he had held for 32 years was opened for a stabilization process, the employee submitted his application.
The San Bartolomé de Tirajana City Council has managed to close a temporary position that had been filled for three decades, but it has done so with a hefty severance bill and a stain on its human resources management that will take time to erase. In this era of job security, the message is clear: the right to the position belongs to the degree, but the right to compensation belongs to years of service.
However, he was excluded for lacking the required qualifications. For the City Council, this was a legal safeguard; for the worker, a dead end: the position he had held for decades now required a degree he did not possess, invalidating his participation in the competition. The timing of his dismissal adds a layer of drama that has outraged social observers. On December 28, 2024, a month after a stroke changed his life, the City Council terminated his contract.
The court has ruled clearly: the dismissal is legal. There was no wrongful or unfair dismissal, because the position was filled according to regulations by another candidate who did meet the requirements. In administrative law, "regulatory coverage" is an irresistible force that disregards health status or seniority if there is no supporting qualification.
The crux of the dispute centered on compensation. The City Council, in a legal balancing act, attempted to invoke Article 2.6 of Law 20/2021 to avoid paying a single euro. Their argument: since the worker was excluded for lack of qualifications, he "had not actually participated" in the process.
However, the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has issued a rebuke to the City Council: The court ruled that submitting the application and appealing the exclusion constitutes genuine participation. The "passivity" penalized by law does not apply to those who attempt to compete but are rejected due to technical requirements. Following 2022 jurisprudence, the court reiterated that a "permanent non-tenured" employee is not simply a temporary worker. Their termination due to the filling of a vacant position is equivalent to dismissal for objective reasons.
The financial outcome: The City Council has been ordered to pay €32.630,40, the equivalent of 20 days' pay per year of service, capped at 12 months' salary. This ruling leaves a bittersweet taste in southern Gran Canaria. On the one hand, it confirms that stabilization processes are administrative "clean-up" processes that cannot be halted due to personal circumstances, however tragic. On the other hand, it establishes a limit to savings for the public coffers: seniority comes at a price.
