REPRIEVE FOR COUNCIL EMPLOYEES TOLD TO RETURN 500 EURO OVERPAYMENT

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Some 175 Torrevieja council employees who have been receiving an overpayment of 12.84 euro a month in their pay packets for the last 39 months were this week told that they must pay it back into the municipal coffers.

The overpayment came about after the City accountants failed to apply a 5% cut to the salaries of over 30% of the 600 council officials in line with new government policy. This isn´t the first time the Torrevieja council have ignored instructions from the National Government. In August we reported that, “Torrevieja Council is not enforcing the extension to staff working hours, as approved by the governing board in June, which would lengthen their working week by 30 minutes, in order to meet the 37.5 hours mandated by central government in 2012, requiring them to complete 1,664 hours per year, to reduce the deficit and avoid further public employment contracts, and includes a pay freeze.”

Most of those involved in this claim for money back belong to the gardens, parks and municipal works department. Those affected have all received a brief communication distributed by the city personnel department informing them that the cut will be made in just one instalment to be taken in December despite the fact that the matter has not been previously discussed.

The instant reduction of 600 euro in a month´s pay packet may be a bitter pill to swallow, especially given that matters relating to the recent mobile phone scandal are still raw, with a number of the hierarchy of the town hall using their municipal funded mobile phones to allegedly call prostitutes, game lines, friends, family and whilst on trips abroad.

Daniel Plaza, the Councillor for Education and Sport resigned from his post as a result of that scandal. Widely recognised as a servant of the people of Torrevieja, Graham Knight, reportedly clocked up a 1,120 euro mobile phone bill in just 2 days. Councillor for Infrastructure, Javier Montoro, spent 415 euro in a two month period making personal calls to his partner, although he was one of the first to admit the mistake and return the money, but the socialist group of Torrevieja estimated some 6,000 euro of the 25,000 per month mobile phone bill was being paid for such “abuses” as these.

With many of the employees affected being on the very lowest salary band, their wages only narrowly exceeding the thousand euro mark, the decision to take out the overpayment in December would have meant a very unhappy Christmas for the workers of the municipality. However, in a last minute reprieve, Joaquín Albaladejo of the ruling PP team expressed his “outrage” that neither he, nor the mayor Eduardo Dolón, had been advised of the situation in advance, subsequently cancelling the immediate refund instruction.

Although the money will still have to be returned, it is hoped that a more suitable solution to the problem can be found.

Filed under: http://www.theleader.info/article/40891/

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