Torrevieja’s Partido Popular revealed on Thursday that Council staff have been without life insurance cover since last March, despite the benefit being written into their contracts of employment. Councillor Carmen Gomez said that there have been no life insurance policies for seven months, “nor is there a budget allocation to pay for it.”
At a press conference Gomez said that she does not “understand what José Manuel Dolón José Hurtado are playing at, as Mayor and Councillor for Personnel, Finance and Contracting, they have no option other than to provide the funding to ensure this service.”
According to Gómez Candel, on February 12, 2015, under the previous council led by the PP, a contract was formalised with an insurer, but just under 3 years later, 1 December 2017 at a local government board, formed by the members of the current Government, “it was agreed not to extend the contract, which means that since March 11, 2018, there have been no life insurance policies covering civil servants and employees of the City Council.”
She added that this would have “major consequences on the payment of compensation, should there be a death of a council employee of his permanent retirement due to permanent disability.”
According to Hurtado, insurance companies do not want to take over these policies because council employees exceed the percentages of accidents in other municipalities. He also noted that when awarding a new contract that the companies in the sector demanded a very high price, higher than the amount that would normally be paid, for securing these policies, so the municipality opted to go through the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), which is currently finalising the new arrangements.
