Seville’s 14th social court has issued the first ruling applying the European Union Court of Justice’s new criterion to increase the compensation owed to a temporary worker who was laid off. This follows last week’s Madrid ruling recognizing a temporary employee’s right to permanent status after enduring up to five successive fixed-term contracts since May 2017. The latest decision uses the European doctrine on temporary appointments to recalibrate compensation in favor of the worker.
The presiding judge, Carlos Javier Galán Gutiérrez, found that a Seville institute’s clerk who had held a vacant-spot interim post for fourteen years was dismissed improperly. The court orders the Andalusian regional government to readmit the claimant with back wages or to pay an equivalent indemnity to a dismissals under private-sector rules. Specifically, the award equals 33 days for each year worked, capped at 24 monthly payments, a figure higher than the standard for displaced interim staff.
“The payment of an indemnity of 20 days per year worked, limited to one annual salary at the termination of an indefinite contract not tied to any legitimate reason for the contract, does not align with Union law,” the Sevillian judge stated. The EU Court’s ruling was especially stern on Spain’s compensation framework in its pronouncement.
This marks the first court decision—dated February 27, five days after the EU ruling—that relies on the new European doctrine to raise the compensation for a laid-off temporary employee within the administration. It specifically requires the Andalusian government to pay 30,535.48 euros if it chooses not to readmit the worker as permanent staff.
The judge concluded that the worker’s relationship had effectively become permanent well before the 2023 call for applications, noting that the government had neither provided justification for not filling the position over such an extended period nor shown any administrative act aimed at permanent coverage prior to the 2023 announcement.