Overview
- The Supreme Court published rulings this week that let temporary public employees who prove abuse claim an additional indemnity and allow courts to send cases to the labour inspectorate to consider sanctions against individual managers.
- The court instructed judges to base the extra indemnity on the Law on Social Order Offences and Sanctions with a deterrent range analogous to very serious penalties, roughly €1,000 to €10,000, while rejecting automatic conversion to permanent status without a competitive selection.
- Official data show the problem is large: the labour survey counted about 981,000 temporary public contracts in Q1 2026, placing public‑sector temporality near 27–30% compared with roughly 12% in the private sector.
- The central Ministry of Public Function has opened negotiations with autonomous communities and has asked the European Commission for more time, until the first quarter of 2027, to agree a coordinated stabilization plan and avoid EU enforcement.
- The rulings are likely to increase litigation and fiscal exposure for administrations, shift some liability toward individual officials through ITSS sanction procedures, and give affected workers a route to repair financial and moral harm even if they later secured a permanent post.