177 Temporary Contract Penalties for Correos in İspanya: A New Era in Public Employment

The Almería Social Court in İspanya convicted the state postal company Correos (Sociedad Estatal de Correos y Telégrafos) with a landmark precedent in terms of labor law. The court characterized the employment of a female worker under exactly 177 separate temporary contracts continuously for 20 years as 'legal fraud' (fraude de ley). According to the ruling, instead of citing seasonal increases in workload, the company attempted to conceal a permanent staffing need with temporary workers. Taking into account the exam the worker took and passed in 2023, the court ruled that she must be converted to permanent staff. This legal victory obligates the company to either reinstate the employee or pay a compensation of 34.294,83 euro.

The background of the case dates back to 2005 and represents a typical example for millions of people employed on temporary contracts. That year, the worker in question registered in Correos's workforce pool and signed her first short-term contract. Although over the following ten years the employment relationship took on an official fragmented history consisting of months of unemployment and periods of rehiring, it continued in practice. It was determined that the worker had a total actual service time of 12 years, seven months, and 28 days, and that even the longest permitted gap without employment constituted only 3,28 percent of the total duration. The court dismissed the company's claims, concluding that these interruptions did not break the continuous employment bond. When the worker's last contract ended in March of 2025, she was paid a mere insignificant seniority compensation of 17,33 euro.

The most critical point of the court's ruling is that the company failed to provide a legitimate reason for the temporary nature of each of these contracts. The judge concluded that the public institution used these contracts not only to handle work intensity during specific periods but to cover a continuous structural staff shortage. Reference was made to the strict case law recently established by the Court of Justice of the European Union (TJUE) and the Supreme Court of İspanya against contracts terminated due to abuse in the public sector. Furthermore, the fact that the employee was not appointed to duty despite passing the institution's exams in 2023 due to the lack of an open position was also taken into account by the court. Based on the new legal path opened by the Supreme Court recently, it was emphasized that those who pass the exams may gain permanent staff status even if they cannot secure a position.

The ruling was enthusiastically welcomed by trade unions representing public workers as a major victory for the protection of workers' rights. The Sipcte union played a critical role in breaking the chain of longstanding exploitation by supporting the case and highlighted the importance of the legal struggle. However, within this victory lies an institutional paradox that victimizes the worker. If an internal regulation of Correos is applied, even if the court rightfully identifies the legal fraud, the worker's seniority will be completely reset to zero. This means that, according to the institution's relevant rule, the worker will lose all her years of seniority in the workforce pool, returning to the very top of the lists to the status of a beginner, and will be forced to compete again.

The repercussions of this precedent-setting ruling, which could have extremely broad implications for millions of public workers in İspanya, are spreading rapidly. The court process provides a very strong basis for all employees who are employed under temporary status in public institutions and exploited for years to file lawsuits and demand permanent staff status. Experts state that it is now inevitable for public personnel who have passed exams or worked for years on continuous consecutive contracts to file similar lawsuits. Aside from the victimized workers specifically at Correos, a radical change in employment policies may also come to the agenda in other state institutions in İspanya. Legal circles state that this judgment not only defends the rights of a single worker but also holds the potential to change deep-rooted injustices in public employment models.