Palma City Council accused of transferring Local Police commanders "via WhatsApp" and without due process

PalmThe conflict between Palma City Council and the Local Police over the delay in implementing the urban planning plan has resurfaced this Thursday at the municipal plenary session With a strong intervention from Socialist councilwoman Angélica Pastor, who denounced a "flagrant violation of labor rights" and an "arbitrary" management of the officers' mobility by the PP governing team, with the "complicit silence" of Vox. Meanwhile, around one hundred officers They have gathered in Cort Squarefor denouncing the repeated failure of the mayor, Jaime Martínez, to keep his promises.

Pastor has accused the municipal government of having promoted a plan with which she "intends to buy and sell rights," a practice she has completely rejected: "Rights are not bought, they are negotiated and won." According to her, the attempt to "buy the will" of the Local Police "has backfired" and has demonstrated the breach of commitments made to the force. "It has backfired on them," she said. During her speech, the councilwoman gave an extensive list of deficiencies in the management of citizen security, beginning with an "absolute lack of structural personnel," which, she said, is covered up by the "improper use of trainee officers, not to train them, but to fill the shortage of personnel." Pastor also denounced the neglect of the Night Unit, a situation that, she warned, puts the safety of the officers who patrol at night at risk. Added to this is the widespread lack of police vehicles: the renting The patrol car tender process has ended, and the protective partitions couldn't even be properly put out to tender due to errors in the specifications, leaving vans and patrol cars without this safety feature. According to him, another critical issue is the management of uniforms: "The relevant committee hasn't met for months and hasn't addressed the officers' needs."

However, Pastor pointed to the direct violation of labor rights as the most serious issue: "Arbitrary mobility—which she has already announced will be reported—breach of agreements, blocking of transfers and secondary duties, as well as irregularities in appointments." In this regard, she questioned the dismantling of the night shift command structure and the dismissal of four Public Safety sub-inspectors "without any administrative or legal procedure," communicated solely via WhatsApp. "A purge has been carried out without any regulations or legal basis," she commented, and then asked under what legal grounds these orders were given and whether this practice will continue.

Mercedes Celeste: "It's an absolute outrage"

In response, the Councilor for Public Service, Mercedes Celeste, defended the actions of the municipal government and asserted that union negotiations "are not a labor dispute, but rather the work that corresponds to a governing team." Celeste strongly rejected the accusations of attempting to buy votes and called these statements "utterly outrageous" and "an insult to the city's civil servants." The councilor also pointed to the cost of the police force's legal defense in the Cursach case, which amounts to five million euros, and insisted that "the dignity of civil servants cannot be bought, neither before nor after elections."