Ex-Andalusia employment chief says alleged slush fund was “legal”

A former Andalusian regional employment chief defended the legality of a multimillion-euro layoff fund that was allegedly exploited to dish out payments to friends, family and allies of its managers in court in Seville on Friday.

“I consider that the new operating system was and is legal,” Antonio Fernández, who held the presidency of the Andalusia Development Institute along with then- labor chief, José Antonio Viera, when the fund was set up by the regional government in 2001.

The fund, which was meant to be used to help ailing firms pay the severance pay of surplus workers they laid off, was allegedly used by the ex-head of the regional employment office, Javier Guerrero, to pay generous but unmerited early retirement packages to friends, relatives and political allies. In a surprisingly damning 90-minute court address, the presiding judge in the so-called ERE case, Mercedes Alaya, accused Fernández of six serious crimes, including bribery, falsifying commercial documents, embezzlement and corruption.

Judge Alaya accused Fernández of benefitting 17 companies in his hometown of Jerez de la Frontera and authorizing a mass layoff in the González Byass winery in 2008 to benefit “himself.” Fernández may be remanded in custody this weekend.