Spanish post office fined for scrimping on contracts

SPANISH state post office Correos was fined twice last year by employment inspectors for fraudulently reducing work contracts to avoid paying social security for weekends and bank holidays.

The public company scrimped on contracts for workers standing in to cover holidays by not including non-working days. For example, in August 2013 contracts were ended on the 30^th of the month as the 31^st was a Saturday.

A saving of just €11 per day, complained workers union SiPcte-USOC, but once multiplied by the hundreds of workers affected by the trick in the summers of 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 the Euros add up.

The first fine was given in January 2014 for the previous summer after more than 300 contracts were found that ended before the worker the person was standing in for got back. Yet the law states that these contracts must coincide exactly with dates the permanent worker is absent.

The second fine, at the end of last year, was for the same reasons regarding contracts in previous years.