Nuria Cabrera steers clear of union row over recruitment exams: “What matters to me is stability at the Fuerteventura Island Council”

The dispute began after the Island Council amended the general rules for its recruitment processes. In an interview with La Voz de Fuerteventura, Nuria Cabrera said the changes had been negotiated with the union representatives on the negotiating committee and set the weighting at 60% for the examination stage and 40% for the assessment stage.

Intersindical Canaria challenged the rules, and a first-instance court ruling found in its favour. In response, Cabrera decided not to prolong the legal proceedings and to reinstate the 2015 rules.

The previous rules give greater weight to the examination, allocating 80% to the examination stage and 20% to the assessment of merits.

To avoid further delays and give the Fuerteventura Island Council stability as soon as possible, the councillor decided not to appeal, thereby avoiding the claim.

Cabrera said the challenge meant that procedures which had already been launched and published in the Official Gazette of the Province had to be set back to an earlier stage.

She said the Island Council had acted “prudently” and had not gone so far as to hold the examinations while awaiting the court’s decision. Following the first-instance ruling, which led to the reinstatement of the 2015 rules, the institution began refunding the fees paid by applicants and relaunched the calls.

“All the calls have now been issued,” the councillor said, expressing confidence that the procedures could be completed.

Cabrera stays out of the union dispute

The Island Council’s head of Human Resources said she wanted to stay out of the dispute between the unions, which has accompanied the recruitment processes. Intersindical Canaria has strongly criticised the institution, questioning the processes’ “transparency” and even alleging “doubts, suspicions and deep mistrust”.

Cabrera noted that she chairs the Island Council’s negotiating committee, which includes Comisiones Obreras and the Canary Islands Public Employees’ Union (SEPCA). Intersindical Canaria did not secure the representation needed to join the committee. She said the amendment to the general rules governing the processes had been made with the committee’s agreement.

“There is a union dispute that I’m not going to get involved in,” she said, stressing that her priority was to get the processes moving again quickly. “They can sort it out wherever they like. What matters to me is stability at the Fuerteventura Island Council,” she said.

Interim staff account for 19.45%

The urgency of restarting the recruitment processes is linked to the level of temporary employment among the workforce.

According to figures provided by Cabrera, the Island Council currently has around 550 employees, 107 of whom are interim staff. This puts the proportion of interim staff at approximately 19.45%.

“We need to have less than 8% interim staff, and we’re not meeting that target,” the councillor acknowledged.

Cabrera said the number of interim employees rose particularly after the pandemic, when the institution had to recruit staff to meet the island’s new needs.

The calls are now being relaunched to fill those posts through the relevant selection processes and gradually reduce a proportion of interim staff that currently exceeds the statutory 8% threshold by more than eleven percentage points.