The permanent clash between the Government of Spain and that of the Community of Madrid has added a new front since this spring: article 30 of the regional Budget law, which the State considers unconstitutional, according to this Wednesday’s official regional bulletin. Thus, the two parties have agreed to open a bilateral negotiation on this specific section of the norm, which denies compensation to public employees. Should an agreement not be reached, the discrepancy will be settled in the Constitutional Court, which has become the main stage for the clashes between the two administrations. Four lawsuits are pending resolution there. They are not isolated. To these are added those that have recently been resolved against the interests of Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s government, criticizing the Assembly’s Bureau, controlled by the regional PP, for the single reading processing of the Telemadrid law, or its veto of opposition initiatives (against which the parliamentary opposition appealed).
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“Article 30 establishes the prohibition of compensatory clauses due to the termination of the legal relationship that binds personnel with the Community of Madrid and, therefore, recognizes their nullity,” describes a spokesperson for the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, headed by Minister Ángel Víctor Torres. “However, the truth is that the Workers’ Statute Law does recognize the right of workers to receive, upon the termination of temporary contracts, their corresponding compensation,” he continues. “The prohibition of establishing compensatory clauses for labor personnel is questioned, whose authorization is determined by labor legislation, which falls under the State’s competence according to the provisions of the Spanish Constitution.”
Translated: the central Government considers that the Community of Madrid invades a state competence by regulating labor rights through the Budget law. This newspaper contacted the Community of Madrid to gather its version, without having received a response at the time of publication of this article.
Article 30 of the Madrid budget law, titled “prohibition of compensatory clauses,” affects personnel hired by the Administration of the Community of Madrid, its autonomous bodies, public companies, and the rest of the entities of the regional public sector. Also, personnel from public sector foundations and consortia attached to the Community of Madrid. Since the budget law came into force, these compensatory clauses, monetary or not, are considered null and void. They are not signed in new hires, and are deleted in modifications or novations.
This is not the only issue facing the two parties, who have made the convocation of the bilateral commission a custom. Although this is not exceptional in the State’s relationship with other regions (there have been 74 such agreements without reaching the Constitutional Court so far this legislature), Madrid has indeed become the community that litigates most with the central government.
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Thus, the State, according to a spokesperson, has two challenges to Madrid laws pending resolution: the one that modifies the Law on Gender Identity and Expression and Social Equality and Non-Discrimination of the Community of Madrid; and the one for improving public management in the local and regional spheres of the Community of Madrid. The latter includes a legal ploy to prevent the Real Casa de Correos from being declared a place of Democratic Memory, which during the Franco dictatorship housed the general security directorate.
On the other hand, Madrid has registered a conflict of powers against the agreement that initiated that declaration, and an appeal of unconstitutionality against Royal Decree-Law 2/2025, of March 18, which approves urgent measures for the guarantee of the best interests of children and adolescents in situations of extraordinary migratory contingencies. This norm articulates the distribution of unaccompanied minors from the Canary Islands to the rest of Spain to avoid the collapse of public services on the islands.
All these skirmishes in the Constitutional Court are just the tip of the iceberg: since Díaz Ayuso took office as president of Madrid in August 2019, her government and that of Pedro Sánchez (PSOE) have also litigated in the Audiencia Nacional and the Supreme Court, where they have measured themselves on issues as disparate as VAT, educational policy, or now the regularization of immigrants. A chain of confrontations that can now add a new link with compensation for public sector employees.
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