Union Against Temporary Status estimates that more than five thousand people gathered in Madrid on Saturday for a demonstration organized by this platform to demand solutions for workers in temporary status within public employment.
Under the motto “We are people, not vacancies,” the Union Against Temporary Status, a coalition of twenty-two organizations and unions from across Spain, organized a protest that began in Neptuno Square in Madrid and, at the time of reporting, had advanced toward the corner of Gran Via and Montera streets.
“People, not vacancies,” said Fernando Villalba, a representative of the teaching workers and co-spokesperson for the Union Against Temporary Status, shortly before the protest began.
Villalba emphasized that they want to highlight the “dramas” faced by families stuck in this temporary status that has persisted for years, and he denounced that positions have been stabilized, not people.
“Europe has not only called for a solution to temporary status but also for a solution to the individuals who are in temporary status,” stated Yolanda Segura, a member of the USTEC union and also a co-spokesperson.
Segura noted that the practice of opening processes of “free concurrence” that do not target the affected individuals has resulted in about 800,000 people nationwide not securing a post.
People from different regions joined the protest, chanting slogans such as “People listen, temporaries in struggle” and “We will fight for stability.”
Diverse Sectors
Temporary workers from various sectors attended the demonstration, including forest firefighters, municipal workers, education staff, and administrative personnel, representing all autonomous communities, according to the organizers.
Nieves, 64, told EFE during the protest that she has spent 25 years in the Community of Madrid without a fixed post in centers for minors protection after taking a competitive examination in 1999.
Ángeles, 56, recounted that she sat an exam in which she scored 7.54 but did not obtain a post and has spent 22 years working as a temporary employee in a Madrid school.
In front of a banner reading “Seville City Hall, stabilize employment amid the abuse of temporality now,” Águeda, 54, explained that in the latest public employment process in Seville more than one hundred people across all categories were left out and they are calling on the city council for a resolution.
European Rulings
The protest follows the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJUE) publication in February urging Spain to convert long-term temporary workers who have not yet secured a place into permanent staff.
Later, in June of this year, a new CJUE ruling also endorsed converting public temporaries into fixed posts as a sanction against the abuse of temporary contracts.
Specifically, the platform argues that the government continues to fail to transpose the European directive on temporality into national law and that neither the stabilization of workers nor the reduction of the temporary rate to eight percent, as targeted by Law 20/2021 for the end of 2024, has been achieved.
They also contend that the exceptional stabilization initiative has fallen short, since stabilizing some posts has led to the loss of many workers with decades of service.
Additionally, the two CJUE rulings this year point to stabilizing workers who have suffered abuse as a more appropriate remedy than relying on indefinite non-fixed arrangements or severance payments.