Barcelona fires 39 temporary staff over Catalan test

39 interim workers dismissed in Barcelona for failing Catalan proficiency test

The Barcelona City Council has terminated the contracts of 39 interim employees—including maintenance, cleaning, concierge staff, vocational teachers, and musicians—for not passing the Catalan language exam required to keep their positions. Most are over 50 years old, and some have held successive temporary contracts at the council for more than 26 years. The socialist government led by Jaume Collboni signed off on these dismissals; critics argue that the linguistic requirement effectively acts as a barrier to public sector jobs that were never consolidated through competitive exams.

This case highlights an administrative contradiction beyond language: while private companies must convert workers to permanent status after three years of consecutive temporary contracts, the State itself keeps interim staff employed for decades without opening the positions to competition. These 39 dismissals are just the visible tip of an endemic model of temporary hiring in local councils, where vacancies are often filled by acquaintances rather than public contests until retirement.

What the Catalan requirement entails and who it affects

According to debate materials, the Catalan test applies to all municipal staff serving the public. The council defends it as a guarantee of service quality in a bilingual administration. Affected workers claim they were never asked to prove this upon hiring and only learned of the requirement when nearing retirement. Some sarcastically question why a street cleaner needs certified Catalan skills if citizen interaction is minimal. No detailed response addressing specific roles has been provided.

The conflict is not just labor-related but political. The People's Party (PP) voted for Collboni during his investiture and now demands he clarify whether he knew the scope of these dismissals. Accusations of a "purge" or settling scores with appointees from previous administrations—Maragall, Clos, Hereu—to install loyalists have emerged. While unproven, the timing and profiles of those dismissed fuel suspicion.

Interim staff for 26 years: the problem no one wants to address

The uncomfortable question isn't why they don't speak Catalan, but how the City Council allowed someone to accumulate 26 years as an interim worker. The interim role was designed to cover temporary vacancies but has become a backdoor into public employment. The European Union has pressured Spain to regularize such situations and enforce exams, which participants note have sometimes been manipulated—for instance, allowing long-serving staff to use reference books.

The result is legal limbo. Dismissed workers plan to sue in Administrative Courts. Precedents exist: one fired employee was reinstated seven years later with full back pay and interest. Two similar cases took three years to resolve. If courts again rule in favor of the dismissed, the City Council will pay compensation with taxpayer money while political leaders remain in office.

The political cost of dismissals likely to end in court

The council knows each dismissal of this type ends in litigation with high odds of losing, yet proceeds anyway. A cynical view suggests indemnification costs are diluted across budgets while the political gain of "enforcing the law" is immediate. A benevolent interpretation claims Brussels mandates order. Neither fully explains why veteran workers are targeted rather than new hires.

The underlying issue remains: an administration using language as a selection criterion when convenient and ignoring it when obstructive. Those affected are aged 50-60, many with over two and a half decades of service. Finding new work at that age, with such tenure, in a city intolerant of interim status, is a career death sentence. The council hasn't specified how many of the 39 failed versus didn't sit the exam.

Court rulings and what happens next

The dismissals are under appeal. Administrative Court doctrine has favored long-term interim workers in similar cases, though each file is judged separately and judicial timelines are slow. Meanwhile, dismissed staff lose their salaries and access to their former posts. If they win, the council must reinstate them or compensate, charging the public purse.

The ball is in the court's hands. Collboni enforced the linguistic requirement but peine a front that could be costly in courts and elections. The 39 names aren't statistics; they are people who spent half their lives in one place, discovering their job was never truly theirs. Analysis stalls here, where the law says one thing and administrative practice has done the opposite for decades.