The Court has declared the dismissal of Antonio Bonilla, who was removed from his post seven months ago by the management of the Tourist Centers, to be unfair. "It's a great step forward. What I wanted was to be proven right," Bonilla said during the press conference he convened this Tuesday to announce the ruling, and in which he was accompanied by his legal advisor, Andrés Barreto, and his colleagues from the Works Council.
As a union representative, Bonilla can now choose to claim compensation for unfair dismissal - which they have put at around 70,000 euros - or request reinstatement, and what he has already decided is to demand that his job be returned to him. "We have already requested reinstatement and it will be carried out," Barreto explained. And, although the ruling is not yet final and they believe that the company will appeal, he pointed out that they have already requested the execution of the sentence and are confident that the Court will issue an order for his immediate reinstatement while the appeals are resolved.
Otherwise, if the ruling is later confirmed, the management of the Centers would have to pay Antonio Bonilla all the salaries from now until that date without having worked. And that amount would be added to what they already have to pay with this first ruling, for all the salaries he has stopped receiving since he was unfairly dismissed.
In his appearance before the media, Andrés Barreto once again attributed Bonilla's dismissal to an attempt by the company to prevent him from running in the union elections that were to be held at that time. "If we kick out the head of the list, he won't be able to run. That's what the company thought," questioned Barreto, who added that the CACT management "didn't even read" the applicable regulations. In fact, Antonio Bonilla was finally able to run in those elections, and was re-elected.
"I am convinced that fundamental rights were violated"
Although they have celebrated this ruling, Barreto has also stated that they themselves do not rule out appealing. And the ruling concludes that the dismissal was unfair but does not declare it null, which is what they were also asking for in their claim. "I am convinced that fundamental rights were violated," defended Bonilla's legal advisor, who believes that it would be positive to have a pronouncement on the matter from the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, where they are considering raising not only the unfairness but also the nullity of that dismissal again.
Among other things, Andrés Barreto has questioned that the management did not open a "contradictory file" before adopting that decision, that "Bonilla was not given a transfer" and that "the union decision was not given a transfer either". For this reason, they are considering defending these and other arguments before the TSJC again, since they believe that the CACT will also appeal to try to annul this first ruling.
"A sanction infinitely higher than that included in the agreement"
In the ruling, what the judge concludes is that the facts imputed to Antonio Bonilla by the management "do not constitute a very serious fault" nor therefore can they lead to dismissal. "It was a sanction infinitely higher than that included in the agreement," Barreto explained.
Specifically, what was attributed to this union representative was having shared a disciplinary file that the company had opened against a worker who later died. "We don't want to talk because that event was tremendous. I don't think they will ever know what happened there," said Andrés Barreto in this regard, who believes that an attempt has been made to "hide some things with others". Regarding the dissemination of that file, he insisted that the leak did not come from Bonilla. In fact, at the trial they provided his mobile phone to show that he received it and what he did afterwards was to share it in a group with other workers.
"We are going to defend the public with even more enthusiasm if possible"
Bonilla ended the press conference expressing his gratitude to his family and colleagues, for the support they have given him during this time, and also to Andrés Barreto. In addition, he once again attacked the management of the Centers. "This management does not represent us. Not me, not any of the workers," he said, denouncing once again that it is "totally politicized".
In addition, after this ruling he has stated that they are going to "defend the public with even more enthusiasm if possible" and also "the work of César Manrique", which he considers is being "deteriorated" with the interventions carried out by the current management.
