Since Andalucia is now out of la crisis (according to whom? Oh, the Junta) it can start paying an Xmas bonus to all civil servants again.
260,000 civil servants across the region will see their pago extra returned as from next year, costing the region an additional 350 million euros in staff costs, said Susana Diaz in a triumphant speech this morning.
It’s allowed because the Conserjería de Economia, the Andaluz Ministry for the Economy, has upped its 2015 forecast for the region: Andalucia’s economy will grow by a whopping 1.4% of GNP next year.
Yeah, right.
It’s also election year.
The Junta granted all civil servants a Christmas bonus in 2008, in a desperate attempt to win votes (it was an election year). It was cancelled in 2012 because the coffers were empty. And in 2015, another election year, it returns.
The 2012 cut was a fun one. The central government ordered it. The Junta refused to comply and went to court. Of course, since the Junta did want the savings, they didn’t put up a fight, and could then go back to Seville lamenting “those PP bastards in Madrid”. Neat stuff.
And then President Susana Diaz wonders why the international credit rating agencies want to downgrade Andalucia again for mismanagement of public funds and corruption….
CSIF, the public service union, is currently in the courts trying to make the region pay for the “missing years”, which would be about a billion euros, in cash, ouch.
I recently came across a study that suggests 1 in every 5 Andaluzs in employment in working for the government. About half a million people draw their paycheque from the public purse. Meaning the other four are paying their high taxes for the fifth.
Eek.