The former mayor lifted a suspension to pay payments despite an unfavorable report from the municipal intervention
The city’s police unions are angry at not charging overtime and announce mobilizations
The Barcelona Provincial Prosecutor’s Office has opened proceedings against the former mayor of Badalona Xavier Garcia Albiol for the payment of overtime in the summer of 2021 to agents of the Urban Guard. According to ‘La Vanguardia’ and municipal sources have confirmed to ACN, the subscriptions are worth 400,000 euros and would have been made during the vacation period lifting a previous suspension.
While municipal intervention and human resources did two unfavorable reports about it, the chief of police made a favorable onee, on which Albiol was based. At the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, the municipal secretary has already transferred the reports for September 2021. The former mayor faces possible accusations of prevarication and embezzlement of public money.
From the PP of Badalona They assert that “it is not a complaint against García Albiol”, that what the Prosecutor’s Office does is “request information on 2019 -PSC government-, 2020 and 2021 on the extra hours of the Urban Guard”.
“In summer, 50% of the Guardia Urbana staff take vacations and the services must be covered. As has always been done, these services in summer are covered through overtime. Overtime, which, by the way, certifies your necessity and fulfillment the Head of the Urban Guard and processes the head of Human Resources of the City council”, defend sources of the municipal group.
lack of agents
The Badalona Urban Guard has about 240 active agentsbut would require a total of 305. This lack of agents is especially noticeable in the summer months, especially in July and August, when the squad takes vacationsand especially in recent years, in which the volume of tourists in the city has increased.
Faced with this need, municipal sources point out that agents are activated who, in theory, should take vacations and the concept of overtime worked is applied to them, that must be collected once made, in this case in September.
However, the same sources follow, in 2021 the municipal comptroller analyzed the situation and concluded that the payment of these hours “was made illegally”since he understood that agents cannot charge extras if they are on vacation and thus suspending payments.
The head of human resources of the City Council took a position along the same lines, while a third report was made from the Guàrdia Urbana in which the payment to the agents was justified because they were hours that had been worked. Before this document, García Albiol lifted the suspension and made the paymentwhich amounted to 400,000 euros, to the agents who were responsible for collecting their payments.
It was not until September that the City Council received a Prosecutor’s request, in which he requested the municipal auditor’s report from September 2021, within the framework of proceedings initiated in May. This documentation has already been sent, according to municipal sources.
The extras of 2022
However, this summer the situation has been repeated of having to activate body agents during the vacation period, but now it is being analyzed how the corresponding amounts can be paid.
Today, the municipal comptroller is analyzing the hours that can be paid because they have been done on a regular basis and which ones have not because the agents were on vacation.
For this reason, it will be moved to discrepancy resolution service of the Generalitatwhich will perform the functions of arbitration with a binding opinion, to determine if these hours can be paid or not.
In case the result is that they can be paid there would be no problems to proceed with the payments, but otherwise the consistory must explore the compensation mechanisms that can be put in place in relation to the days worked. The documentation is expected to be sent next week, and the results will be available within three months.
union protests
The police unions of Badalona have protested against the blocking of the payment of overtime hours carried out during the vacation period. from the union SIP Fepol They argue that their section, through its own legal services“sent a document where they argued that there was no legal basis to block this payment.”
From this police union they assert that these extraordinary services “are paid without problems in many local police forces in other municipalities.”
Meanwhile, the police union PSU has announced that they plan to protest in the Plaza de la Vila de Badalona coinciding with the municipal plenary session next Tuesday to claim payments of pending amounts for overtime.
Related news
Thus, from the SIP Fepol they comment that this blocking situation puts “in tension” a template “already burnt out” for the “immense days of work he carries out”.
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