The Administrative Number 1 in Elche has condemned the Torrevieja for labour harassment suffered for many years by a Policia Local agent.
The ruling has ordered that he be paid compensation of 95,816 euros for psychological and moral damages since the local administration at the time “did not intervene to prevent the situation of harassment from continuing.” This was despite the fact that it was public knowledge “because of the numerous letters of complaint and denuncias presented by the officer to senior administrators and councillors”, in the Ayuntamiento presided at that time by Eduardo Dolón (PP).
This is the third judgement received by the City Council for similar events that have occurred within the Police Department and that the judge has taken into consideration in reaching his conclusion.
In his ruling he says that the council “despite being aware of all the facts” and also being aware “of the numerous legal proceedings for the same complaint, has acted with a total apathy and neglect when introducing measures to rectify this situation”.
The agent began working in the city in 2010 and warned from the outset that there were irregularities and a lack of control in respect of the cash that was collected from fines.
There were also repeated inspections in many leisure facilities while others bars and restaurants received none, despite existing unfavourable reports.
The officer, together with two colleagues, reported these incidents and they were told that an investigation would be opened by an inspector and two agents.
However from that time the officers found that their shifts were regularly changed with little or no warning, they were denied holidays, shifts were imposed without a period of mandatory rest,
The complainant was also denied extra pay and other benefits, humiliating correspondence that was addressed to him was made public and according to several witnesses, he was subjected to degrading situations. He was also insulted almost daily by senior officers in front of his colleagues, and nobody did a thing.
In the complaint initiated by the agent it was claimed that harassment had been carried out by a former mayor of Torrevieja, the Councillor for Police and Human Resources, Agustina Esteve, Inspector Manuel López Vera and Police Chief Vicente Gutiérrez, who were all listed as co-defendants.
In reaching his conclusion the judge said “We cannot forget that Vicente Gutiérrez and Manuel López Vera have already been found guilty of workplace harassment in two previous trials in which the City Council was forced to pay compensation of 48,500 and 23,450 euros.”
