argia.eus
INPRIMATU
A municipal agent of Eibar exempts from Basque knowledge a court of Donostia
  • The Municipal Guard has been working since 1992 in a position with an Euskera profile and in a competition that requires a stabilization process the Basque was still a requirement. This obligation has been appealed by the Municipal Police Officer, and the Judge is right.
Xabier Letona Biteri @xletona 2024ko apirilaren 26a

According to the Municipal Police, he has been in his job for 30 years without knowing the Basque and now it is exclusive to demand this requirement. The judgment handed down by the San Sebastian Administrative Dispute Tribunal No. 1 against the City of Eibar does not call into question the need of the Basque Country for this post, but says that currently fixed agents over 45 years of age are exempt from this requirement and that provisional agents should also be exempted.

The Council places this new ruling in the judicial aggression against the normalization of the Basque country and the linguistic rights of citizens, and says that the judgment is based on a judgment of this kind that is legally questionable in Llodio of 2023. In that ruling, a judge from Vitoria argued that the Basque language "is the fifth most difficult language in the world" in response to the appeal filed by the City Council of Laudio.

The Council considers that “the public administration has an obligation to guarantee the rights of all citizens, for which it is essential that all public personnel be aware of the two official languages. This can be done in two ways: by putting the minimum linguistic profiles to jobs and offering means and facilities for the Euskaldunization of already occupied workers”.

The Council has shown its support for the City of Eibar and, in view of the new legislature that has just begun, has called on the parties to “commit to tackling the aggression”. Taking into account the models of both Catalonia and Galicia, he asks them to change the paradigm of the linguistic criteria of the public administration so that Spanish is not the only mandatory language for public employment”.

ELA and LAB report sentencing

LAB considers that for the Spanish courts the Basque language is a secondary language: “The judgment does not question the other requirements established in those same calls, among them the mandatory requirement of knowledge of Spanish. Ordering Basque is exclusive, but apparently not knowing Spanish”.

The union denounces that in the arguments that are being given in these kinds of sentences “always associate Euskera with exclusion”. He believes that the precariousness that exists among the staff of the administrations must be eliminated, “but not to the detriment of the Basque Country”.

ELA says that Spanish knowledge is mandatory for all jobs, that Basque knowledge is only sometimes and “in this situation, Basque knowledge is considered a discriminatory factor, unlike any other knowledge or condition”.

Regarding the Euskaldunization of workers, ELA has denounced that for years the administrations have acted negligently with the Basque: “In the Basque administrations there are many workers who have worked for many years and who have not fulfilled the requirement of Euskera that corresponds to their job. Consequently, the service in Basque as in Spanish is not guaranteed in the administrations”. ELA says that in order to channel this situation they have asked LAB and the Council to plan the administrations, but they have been rejected.