The permanent clash between the Government of Spain and that of the Community of Madrid has added a new front since this spring: article 30 of the regional Budget law, which the State considers unconstitutional, according to the official regional bulletin this Wednesday. Thus, the two parties have agreed to open bilateral negotiations on this specific section of the rule, which denies compensation to public employees. If an agreement is not reached, the discrepancy will be resolved in the Constitutional Court, which has become the great scene of clashes between the two administrations. There are four lawsuits pending resolution there. They are not something isolated. Added to these are those that have recently been resolved against the interests of the government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, damaging the Assembly Table, which controls the regional PP, the processing in a single reading of the Telemadrid law, or its veto of opposition initiatives (against which the parliamentary opposition appealed).
“Article 30 establishes the prohibition of compensation clauses due to the termination of the legal relationship that unites the staff with the Community of Madrid and, therefore, recognizes their nullity,” describes a spokesperson for the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, headed by Minister Ángel Víctor Torres. “However, the truth is that the Workers’ Statute Law does recognize the right of workers to receive, at the end of temporary contracts, their corresponding compensation,” he continues. “The prohibition of establishing compensation clauses with respect to labor personnel is questioned, whose qualification is determined by labor legislation, which is the responsibility of the State in accordance with the provisions of the Spanish Constitution.”
Translated: the central government considers that the Community of Madrid invades a state competence by regulating labor rights through the Budget law. This newspaper contacted the Community of Madrid to obtain its version, without having received a response at the time of publication of this article.
Article 30 of the Madrid budget law, entitled “prohibition of compensation clauses”, affects personnel hired by the Administration of the Community of Madrid, its autonomous bodies, public companies and the rest of the entities of the regional public sector. Also, to the staff of the public sector foundations and the consortia assigned to the Community of Madrid. Since the entry into force of the budget law, these compensation clauses, monetary or not, are considered null. They are not signed in incorporations, and are deleted in modifications or novations.
This is not the only issue that confronts the two parties, which have made it customary to convene the bilateral commission. Although this is not exceptional in the relationship between the State and the rest of the regions (74 agreements of this type have not reached the Constitutional Court so far this term), Madrid has become the community that litigates the most with the central government.
Thus, the State, according to a spokesperson, has two challenges to Madrid laws pending resolution: the one that modifies the law on Gender Identity and Expression and Social Equality and Non-Discrimination of the Community of Madrid; and the improvement of public management at the local and regional level of the Community of Madrid. The latter includes a legal trick to prevent the Real Casa de Correos, headquarters of the regional executive, which during the Franco dictatorship housed the general directorate of security, from being declared a place of Democratic Memory.
On the other hand, Madrid has registered a conflict of powers against the agreement that initiated that declaration, and an appeal for unconstitutionality against Royal Decree-Law 2/2025, of March 18, which approves urgent measures to guarantee the best interests of children and adolescents in situations of extraordinary migratory contingencies. This rule articulates the distribution of unaccompanied minors from the Canary Islands to the rest of Spain to avoid the collapse of public services on the islands.
All these skirmishes in the Constitutional Court are just the tip of the iceberg: since Díaz Ayuso acceded to the presidency of Madrid, in August 2019, his government and that of Pedro Sánchez (PSOE) have also litigated in the National Court and the Supreme Court, where they have measured themselves on issues as disparate as VAT, educational policy or now the regularization of emigrants. A chain of confrontations that can now add a new link with compensation to public sector employees.
