Cort estimates that the impact of the Local Police salary increase could reach 10 million euros

PalmThe planned salary increase for the Palma Local Police will have a considerable economic impact on the municipal coffers. According to estimates used by the City Council, implementing the new organizational plan could cost around 10 million euros annually, a figure that may still vary by several million euros, up or down, depending on the final outcome of negotiations with the unions. This would mean an increase of approximately 2,500 euros gross in bonuses across the board.

However, the salary increase will not be uniform across the entire staff. Between the lowest and highest paid officers, there are several intermediate categories, and not everyone will see a significant raise reflected in their paycheck. While some could see their gross annual salary increase from €16,000 to €31,000, others would experience virtually no increase because they already receive that amount as part of their specific supplement. This is the case for some of the units that work on the ground and perform immediate and reactive intervention tasks.

The specific supplement refers to a portion of the salary that compensates for the particular conditions of each job and remunerates factors such as hazardous work, arduousness, shift work, and night work, among others. The main technical difficulty is how to fit a fixed figure, €31,000, into a generic specific supplement. In practice, this means having to argue that an office worker and an officer integrated into street-level intervention and conflict management units should receive the same supplement, for example. Municipal sources want to emphasize that the process goes beyond the Local Police. Cort has commissioned an external company to conduct a comprehensive study of all municipal jobs with the aim of organizing and updating the salaries of the local administration as a whole, not just those of the police force. Union mobilizations

For her part, the municipal spokesperson, Mercedes Celeste, stated that "there is no specific date" for the zoning plan to come into effect, despite the initial commitment to January 1st. Celeste expressed her respect for the protests announced by the unions, but maintained that the governing team must fulfill "many administrative, not political, requirements," and warned that setting a new date now would be "too risky."

"At the end of the year, we encountered difficulties in the valuation process. We contacted the company we hired at the end of November, and they gave us a draft to help us understand where we could go from here. We're working based on this very preliminary document, which provides a common framework," he explained.

"The sooner the better"

Celeste stated that she hopes to have a "final document" available "as soon as possible" to support the municipal technicians, but cautioned that "the entire process of reorganizing the police force must then be carried out, which will take weeks." The municipal spokesperson defended the initiative for the reorganization plan, stating that it originated with the governing team, "who were the ones who raised the need to reorganize the police force and make it more effective." She affirmed that the local government is making a significant effort in terms of human and material resources for public safety, and especially for the Local Police, and is now "pleased" that the support for this plan "is widespread and eagerly awaited." She emphasized that it is a commitment of the government and that it will be implemented "whenever possible, in the shortest time possible." The first disagreements between the Palma City Council (Cort) and the police unions date back to May 2024, shortly before the first year of Martínez's term, when the unions UGT, CCOO, CSIF, and SPPME organized a protest in front of City Hall. However, this January, after the municipal corporation failed to meet its deadlines, the unions announced a return to protests. The first demonstration will take place on January 29 at 10:00 a.m. in Plaza de Cort.