Court, on the ropes: police officers demand more than 2,500 euros gross per month in bonuses

PalmThe mayor of Palma's pet project, the Local Police, is beginning to lose patience. After failing to reach an agreement with the City Council on the new urban development plan, officers are now threatening protests. Jaime Martínez has never been one to favor the Sant Ferran police station: it was the first municipal building he visited upon taking office in June 2023, and one of his major campaign promises was to reinforce the force with 300 new officers. And, above all, its budget has increased year after year. Now, in the first months of 2026, a long-simmering conflict threatens to erupt: with the new urban development plan, the police are demanding a salary supplement of up to €31,000 per year, which would be added to their base salaries. This means receiving more than €2,500 gross per month in supplements alone.

According to the union proposal, which ARA Baleares has obtained, the new organizational plan seeks a more stable, specialized, and efficient police force, with legal guarantees and improved service to the public. The proposal advocates for an orderly transition to the new model, through a transitional provision that would allow certain officers to temporarily retain their positions and working conditions (due to seniority, proximity to retirement, or family reasons), without hindering the plan's implementation. The unions are calling for a reduction in the excessive multi-skilling of the operational shift and a simplification of the organization with specialized units staffed by stable personnel and established formats, such as the UVAC (for accidents and reports), the green patrol, the complaints and reports unit, and the 092 emergency line. In addition to these units (street units, reactive units, preventive action units, etc.), there is also the operational support shift (office staff). Finally, they call for the elimination of the Special Destinations Unit, advocating instead that medical situations be managed through the general Social Security system or, where appropriate, through reassignments outside the police organization.

With this simplification, the proposal includes harmonizing salary supplements, which, according to police sources, is the most important aspect, although the unions don't emphasize it in their demands. Currently, the unit that receives the fewest supplements receives approximately €17,000 in additional payments (besides salary, seniority, and bonuses). The idea is to standardize all categories so that each officer receives €31,000 in supplements, regardless of their duties, according to municipal sources. Administratively, this presents a hurdle, since modifying a supplement requires doing so according to objective criteria. First, a job is analyzed, and based on the objective criteria (night shifts, hazardous work, specialization, arduousness, availability, shifts, etc.) that are met, a score is awarded, which translates into a specific monetary amount.

According to municipal sources, the complication lies in adapting a specific sum of money, €31,000, to a specific, abstract supplement. In other words, justifying why someone working in an office receives the same supplement as someone working in a street-level conflict intervention unit, for example. Therefore, the city council has hired an external company to create a guide that categorically quantifies how to increase these supplements.

Supplement for the entire City Council

On the other hand, the City Council plans to conduct an assessment and review of the specific supplement for all staff. This does not necessarily imply an increase, although that is possible, but rather the objective of this assessment is to break down the specific supplement, that is, to know what is being assessed and what is being compensated under this concept. In other words, the goal is for the salary increase—to the extent that it can be increased—to be reflected in all areas of the local corporation and not just benefit the police force. However, the concern is that if the police officers obtain such a significant increase in their specific supplement, the rest of the City Council's public employees will demand the same, something economically unfeasible.

The first disagreements between the City Council 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 the City Hall. They demanded the urban development plan and improved working conditions. Following the mobilization, the municipal government team convened union representatives and agreed to negotiate its drafting. After a year of back-and-forth negotiations without significant progress, in June 2025 the mayor personally committed to pushing through the urban development plan and set January 1st as the effective date, publicly endorsing this commitment. This January 2026, however, after the municipal corporation failed to meet the deadlines, CSIF, SPPME, UGT, and CCOO announced a return to protests. This time, they will not be isolated incidents; they have announced that they will escalate the conflict. They do not rule out further demonstrations in the City Hall (Cort) or street protests. The first demonstration will take place on January 29th at 10:00 AM in the Plaza de Cort. The unions criticize the Civil Service for informing them in December that, due to technical and administrative problems, the reorganization plan would not be implemented as planned, and for calling them to a meeting on January 7th, a meeting that never took place.

Furthermore, police sources explained to this newspaper that despite the mayor's public displays of goodwill, improvements for the force have been minimal. Few new vehicles have arrived, and job openings, managed by the Balearic School of Public Administration (EBAP), an entity under the regional government, are announced only sporadically.

Agreed commitment

"Not only has the agreed-upon commitment not been fulfilled, but we are concerned that no one is doing anything and we will likely face another term in office like this. We feel like they are playing games with us and, moreover, laughing in our faces," the union organizations stated in a joint statement issued on January 12. They warned that until the plan is implemented, there will be demonstrations, a presence at the mayor's events and plenary sessions, and other actions. "This will be our way of showing that we are fed up," they emphasized. The demonstration at Cort on January 29 will be "the first of many" until the salary reorganization and adjustment plan is in place, they warned. In a turn of events, the Councilor for Finance and spokesperson for the Palma City Council, Mercedes Celeste, stated on January 14 that her intention is to finalize the reorganization plan for the police force "as quickly as possible," but that she cannot give a "specific date" for its implementation.

The mayor of Palma has the ball in his court. At the beginning of his term, his obsessions—before taking office—were graffiti, electric scooters, and squatting. Now, it seems they have more to do with resolving the urban development plan's bottleneck, a long shadow hanging over municipal management with no easy solution.