Finding a hotel room in the Canary Islands or the Balearic Islands for 48.92 euros per night is almost an impossible mission, not to mention if the search is in the middle of summer. A problem that is repeated in cities like Madrid or Barcelona where accommodation is through the roof. An odyssey that thousands of national police and civil guards are forced to go through, whose accommodation allowances have not been updated for 19 years.
Accommodation, food, use of a private vehicle, fuel… the agents' allowances have been the same since 2005, their amount has not changed in any way. If we look at the current high cost of living, this situation seems unsustainable. Specific, up to 212% more. That is the difference between the average cost of a hotel room (153 euros in August) and what a police officer has to pay for that accommodation during an official trip, according to what they denounce from the Spanish Police Confederation (CEP).
Because the figures are not misleading. If police officers have to travel outside their Unit for professional reasons, they receive 28.21 euros per day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. If accommodation is also added, you are granted 48.92 euros more (Basic Scale) or 65.97 euros (Executive Scale). Amounts that do not cover expenses and mean that agents have to juggle each police operation or service they perform outside.
Rooms at 199.77 euros per night
According to official data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), during 2023 accommodation prices skyrocketed. In the case of The Balearic Islands reached 199.77 euros per night in August. And in the Canary Islands, in the month of July, the figure exceeded 162 euros per night. “This situation is increasingly unsustainable. We have been demanding solutions from the Ministry of the Interior for a long time, which he plays the Swedish with this matter“, they denounce from the CEP.
From the ministry he directs Fernando Grande-Marlaska It is argued that these allowances “cannot be touched” because Royal Decree 462/2002, which establishes these amounts, affects the entire public service. But as this police union points out, there are “alternatives” and they can be implemented as was done in 2004 and 2010.
Namely: article 11 dThis Royal Decree does cover raising the amount of allowances at some times of the year, even more so given the increase in hotel accommodation prices. From the CEP they point out that this has already been done and “allowed the police not to suffer hardship for doing their job for seven years.” Furthermore, they point out that the CECIR, the body that approves these measures, agreed in 2010 that the ministries could propose this increase in accommodation allowances for “exceptional reasons.”
At this point, the union wants to make it clear that it is not only about “summer operation”, the refusal to update these diets affects all trips by the UIP, UPR, CGI, CGEF, CGPJ, UAI or any other Unit. “Interior has to stop looking the other way on this issue and take action now. Less bragging about our work and more real support,” they denounce.