Court orders Interior Ministry to pay canceled staff bonuses
Government must restore part of civil servants' traditional Christmas payments
A Madrid court has ordered the Interior Ministry to restore part of the traditional end-of-year monthly bonus payments for civil servants. The bonuses were canceled by the conservative Popular Party government in 2012 by a decree as part of a draconian austerity drive.
The ruling followed a suit filed by a civil servant in the state penitentiary system claiming proportional payment of the bonus up until the day the decree became effective on July 14, 2012. The judge ruled that such bonus payments could be paid proportionally.
This is the first judgment of this nature regarding the bonus payment against the central administration, although courts had previously ruled in favor of public employees of regional and municipal administrations. The government saved five billion euros by suppressing the Christmas bonus payments.