The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has played it again for thousands of national police officers. More than 70,000 agents will have to wait until April to collect the 0.5% increase in their payrolls, despite the fact that the rest of the officials of this ministry have already received it, including the Civil guards. The reason? Which is a dispatch error.
“The fault, as always, will be that of the master gunsmith. No one will assume a single responsibility. Nobody will apologize. And no one will admit the mistake. If it's free, until the next…”, they denounce from the Spanish Confederation of the Police (CEP). And, as they point out, on February 8, the Official State Gazette (BOE) published the Resolution of the Secretary of State for Budgets and Expenses in which the instructions for payment to officials of the salary increase of 0.5% linked to the evolution of GDP. On the other hand, the additional amounts corresponding to the retroactive effects from January 1, 2023. What's more, the same resolution made it clear that “except for technical reasons”, this payment had to be made in February.
Well then, at the end of March the national police still have not received anything. The justification given by the Interior is that “on that date the payroll files were already sent to the Treasury for inspection and that we would have to wait until March, because the Delegated Intervention prevents making this payment through an incident payroll.” However, this response only demonstrates, in the opinion of the union, that “They had plenty of time to prepare all the necessary documentation and arrive on time the following month.
Punishment of 70,000 police officers
But what provokes the most indignation among the agents is the fact that the rest of the officials of the Ministry of Interior They have already collected, not only the 0.5% increase but also the arrears corresponding to the period from January 2023. And all, they reiterate, due to a delay in the management of the files. “How is it possible that 70,000 public security professionals in this country are discriminated against So with respect to other colleagues, that we be condemned to wait another month to collect that salary increase on the payroll? It is yet another scandal that demands action. They will not take them,” they lament from the CEP. And they add: “The problem with this type of errors is the zero cost. That there is a flat rate and that it doesn't matter how many atrocities happen, because nothing ever happens. Nobody, of course, at management levels, is going to assume responsibility.”
For all these reasons, this union urges us to stand up to the General Directorate of Police (DGP) in a unitary way, since it is limited to “shrug of shoulders”. Thus, given the drift of everything that has to do with personnel management in the National Police, the CEP has not attended Council meetings for some time. Specifically, as far as the working day is concerned, they denounce that it is “a negotiation as secret as it is suspicious in which no one, absolutely no one, still knows, after two months, what the Administration is proposing”.
Not to mention other vitally important issues on which there is no progress. Namely: recognition as a risky profession, the dignification of retirements, salary improvements or the reinforcement of the physical and legal protection of police officers.