Last night, the ordinary plenary session of the Ondara City Council approved, with the votes in favour of the PP and Compromís and against the PSPV governing team, a motion presented by the spokesperson for the municipal group of the PP, Àlex Hernández, for the payment of three-year periods to the staff of the municipal company SINMA.
The approved motion agrees to "make the appropriate budgetary changes to pay the workers of the municipal company SINMA the seniority supplement that they are entitled to, retroactively, in accordance with the date of their hiring and their professional category." According to the proposal, this payment would be made "from the date of approval of this motion." The PP insisted, as it did in December, on the need for a budgetary change to pay this salary supplement, which would correspond to 7% for each three-year period on the base salary at the time when the seniority was generated. The estimated figure for this payment amounts to 199.220 euros, an amount that the promoters of the motion consider "insignificant" within the municipal budget.
PP spokesman Àlex Hernández denounced "clear and obvious discrimination" towards SINMA workers by the government team, pointing out that European regulations and jurisprudence require equal pay in terms of seniority. Along the same lines, Compromís spokesman Lluís Fornés expressed his support for the motion and criticised the "technicalities" that, in his opinion, have delayed the recognition of these labour rights. Fornés also compared the situation with other municipal companies in the region where these supplements are paid.
Before the vote, the PSPV presented an amendment to the whole, which was rejected by the PP and Compromís. In it, the socialist spokesperson, Rosa Ana Marí, argued that the motion "lacks a normative basis and cannot be fulfilled." The mayor, José Ramiro, explained that the PSPV supports salary increases in SINMA, but insisted that "it must be done through appropriate collective bargaining." He also recalled that SINMA is a municipal commercial company subject to private legal regulations in labour matters, so the plenary session lacks the authority to establish salary increases without a prior collective agreement.
According to the Government team, a report from the legal advisor of SINMA supported the position of the PSPV, concluding that "the payment of three-year periods cannot be made unilaterally" and that the plenary has no authority to decide on labour negotiations in the company. According to this report, the PP's motion is "illegitimate both in substance and in form", and any salary increase must respect the budgetary limits established by the central Government and be negotiated within the framework of a collective agreement.
The mayor, José Ramiro, stressed that the approved motion "will have no practical effect because it does not comply with the regulations" and reiterated his commitment to improve the working conditions of SINMA workers "within the legal framework and through collective bargaining." He also recalled that the budgetary regulations limit the salary growth of public sector staff and that any modification must comply with these limits.
Despite the opposition's approval of the motion, the future of the payment of three-year periods in SINMA remains up in the air, as the legal and budgetary viability of this measure is still the subject of debate.
