The Supreme Court has confirmed a conviction for the "illegal transfer" of a worker, between Tragsa and the Ministry of Territorial Policy of the Government of the Canary Islands, in the Timanfaya National Park. The Social Chamber has dismissed an appeal by the regional Executive, which was joined by the public company, ratifying a ruling by the TSJC that condemned the administration to declare a park interpreter guide as a permanent worker.
According to the ruling, the woman signed a temporary contract for work and service with Tragsa on April 1, 2017, which was "extended to attend to the assignments made by the Ministry of the Environment for the management of the support service for surveillance and public use" in Timanfaya.
Faced with this, this worker decided to sue both the public company and the regional government, demanding to be recognized as a permanent worker on the staff. A claim that was rejected in the first instance by the Social Court number 3 of Arrecife in May 2018 and that was appealed by this employee, to whom the Social Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands later gave the reason in a ruling dated in December of the same year.
In that ruling, the TSJC concluded that it was in the presence of an "illegal situation of labor lending." "Although Tragsa exercises nominal control over the activity of the plaintiff through its coordinator, in terms of the effective performance of her working day, management of permits and vacations and preventive training, with the latter having a uniform and company telephone, her functions as an interpreter guide in the Timanfaya National Park are confused with those of the specialist technicians attached to the defendant Ministry," the court stated.
It also pointed out that it was the director of the National Park who was in charge of "dictating the instructions to the Tragsa coordinator." "In short, the latter has not put its organization into play with its own means, but rather the worker has been inherent in the administrative organization of the Visitors Center of the defendant Ministry, using the material means made available by said administration for the fulfillment of the center's purposes," it added.
In addition, it indicated that the service assignment had resulted in "a mere formal cover in order to cover the insufficiency of personal and material resources" and that the defendant Ministry was "the real employer of the worker." Thus, it concluded that the plaintiff had the right to acquire the status of permanent worker.
Faced with this ruling, the Government of the Canary Islands filed an appeal, which was joined by the company Tragsa. However, this was dismissed on May 17 by the Supreme Court, which has ratified the TSJC ruling. "It was appropriate to declare the existence of illegal transfer, as the appealed ruling correctly did, which adheres to the correct doctrine," the high court points out, which condemns the appellant to pay the costs, set at 1,500 euros.
It should be remembered that, in November 2018, the TSJC also issued a ruling that gave the reason to another worker who had also been hired as an interpreter guide in the Timanfaya National Park, concluding that there had also been an "illegal transfer" in his case and that he should be recognized as permanent.
