The High Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV) has declared the dismissal of approximately 30 laboratory staff from the University Hospital of Torrevieja null and void. These workers, who had been employed at the hospital for up to 18 years, must now be reinstated, although the Ministry of Health retains the option to appeal the ruling.
The affected employees were dismissed on July 22, 2023, following the Generalitat Valenciana’s decision not to renew the concession with the Ribera Salud healthcare company in November 2021. The union Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) has confirmed that the court ruled the Generalitat should have subrogated the staff when the concession ended, and it criticized the Ministry of Health for its mishandling of the transition.
RULING AND MISMANAGEMENT
The court’s decision highlights that the Generalitat had sufficient time to determine how to manage the laboratory staff after the concession ended. It criticized the Ministry for resorting to an emergency contract instead of either subrogating the staff or outsourcing the service through a tender. The workers, who were fully integrated into the hospital’s daily operations, were never treated as an external service.
For nearly 18 years, the laboratory staff worked alongside other hospital employees in the same physical space, under comparable conditions, and with similar agreements. The primary difference was that they were technically employed by a subsidiary of the Ribera Salud concessionaire.
In addition to reinstating the workers, the Ministry of Health has been ordered to pay their salaries retroactively from the time of dismissal until their reemployment.
BACKGROUND TO THE CONFLICT
The laboratory workers became casualties of a larger administrative shift when the Generalitat took over the Torrevieja health department in 2021. While over 1,000 health workers were subrogated during this transition, the laboratory staff were excluded from this process. The Ribera Salud company did not include them in its personnel list for subrogation, and the Generalitat failed to address their situation, despite having a year to plan.
The Generalitat initially signed an emergency contract to temporarily maintain the laboratory’s operations while preparing to renew the facility’s technology and open positions for statutory personnel. However, the dismissed staff were excluded from this new pool of positions, and their years of service at Torrevieja were not counted toward their eligibility. Ironically, their two years under the emergency contract did count as seniority, bolstering their argument that they should have been subrogated from the start.
UNION RESPONSE AND NEXT STEPS
CCOO and other unions have hailed the court’s decision as a major victory for workers’ rights. They have urged the Ministry of Health not to appeal, arguing that further legal action would only delay justice. They remain confident that the Supreme Court, if involved, would uphold the TSJCV’s ruling.
Health Minister Marciano Gómez has publicly stated that the Ministry will abide by the court’s decision if the ruling is upheld. However, the final decision on whether to appeal lies with the Generalitat’s legal services and political leadership.
For the dismissed workers, this ruling represents a long-awaited step toward restoring their livelihoods. As the Generalitat deliberates its next move, the case continues to highlight the complexities of healthcare administration and workers’ rights in the Valencian Community.
