In Spain there is a legal procedure that allows companies in economic crisis to suspend or dismiss employees under conditions that protect workers' rights. The resource is called Expediente de Regulación de Empleo (ERE, for its acronym in Spanish) and recently its name has been heard frequently in the European country, due to the use of this mechanism. to commit corruption offenses.
The ERE case admitted the guilt of two former presidents of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (Psoe). and of the Junta de Andalucía, Manuel Chaves and José Antonio Griñán; a former minister of former President José Luis Zapatero, Magdalena Álvarez and 16 other former senior officials of the governments of this party, for using a resource of the Spanish legislation to grant at discretion public resources (at least 679 million euros), circumventing the controls and the established regulations.
The judgment, which has determined the legal responsibilities of at least 21 persons involved in theIn the same way, he emphasizes that the intention behind the crimes committed was to try to counteract the popular discontent that the socialist party in Andalusia began to experience as of the year 2000. Likewise, he recognizes that the imputed actions could not have been carried out without the approval of the government as a whole, so it is impossible to think that those involved in the case were unaware of the situation.
Penalties in the ERE case
The opinion published last November 20, 2019, after a 152-session trial.The report concludes in years of imprisonment and disqualification for those responsible for the crimes of prevarication or embezzlement by "creating a fraudulent and illegal system that generated an absolute lack of control over 680 million euros in social and labor aid, in order to ensure social peace".
The sentence imposed on Chaves is nine years of political disqualification.while Griñán must serve six years in prison and 15 years of disqualification. For the Spanish law, it is clear that Chaves approved the occurrence of the crime and Griñán had participation in the preparation of budgets where the financing of aid and financing transfers were included.
In order to somehow calculate the damage caused by the fraudThe ruling showed that between 2000 and 2009 there were 9,461 labor redundancies in Andalusia, affecting 120,829 workers. However, the economic compensation only reached 6,000 of them. The document also records the origin of the actions that took place in the aid given to the meat company Hijos de Andrés Molina S.A. in 2000.
The results of the ruling affect the Psoe politically and without a doubtThe new government's decision to support the socialist political party in Andalusia has deepened the dissatisfaction that has been growing throughout this socialist political party.
It is because of cases like this that Alan Aldana & Abogados advises private and public companies in the creation of effective protocols for the prevention of corruption and money laundering crimes.
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