Catalan public workers may soon get job transfers

The Catalonia government on Friday gave union leaders its restructuring plan for 45,000 public employees. Over the course of two years, the Catalan CiU nationalist bloc government of Artur Mas is intending to modify the working hours as well as the duties of a portion of the region’s 230,000 workers.

The proposed plan would mostly affect those in technical and administrative positions, and it won’t cover teachers or health workers.

“This is the same thing as the labor reform. But instead of the private sector, this one covers the public sector,” said CCOO representative Montse Ros on Friday.

The government’s directorate general, which drafted the proposed restructuring, will present it to the Cabinet next Tuesday.

The executive will have until October to study it and begin applying the changes.

One part of the plan, which calls for the transfers of some positions to other locations in the region, has sparked concern among employees. According to government sources, the transfers will be within the same department or to other agencies.

An immediate measure will be a 15-percent reduction in working hours and salaries for part-time and substitute workers, which total about 6,800. However, those excluded from this proposal will be firemen, technicians at penitentiaries and veterinarians at slaughterhouses.