A Supreme Court ruling puts the viability of medical transport in Extremadura at risk

Medical transport in Extremadura has been in turmoil for years, since the transfer to Tenorio Ambulances, the resignation of that company and the call for a contest that has been postponed for months, which has led to a new emergency contract. Now comes a sentence that represents a great change for the sector throughout the country, but that falls in the region in a particularly delicate situation and in full strike for the renewal of the collective agreement.

The Supreme Court ruled on February 17 that the so-called presence hours, which are those in which the employee is not doing any work but is available to the company, must be considered as working time in the annual calculation. Currently this is not the case, so now more workers would be needed to cover the same services. In Extremadura, it affects Ambucoex, the consortium that was awarded this tender at the end of January for a period of one year and that already has the company Ambuvital as its sole partner.

This sentence has its origin in a ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of Castilla y León, which in 2020 ruled that all those that exceed the annual working day of 1,800 hours included in the collective agreement for workers of the service of emergencies that perform shifts of 24 hours and 72 rest. In those cases, it was estimated that the hours spent at the base or work center should be computed as effective working time.

The Supreme has gone further and has changed its previous doctrine. Taking several European directives as an argument, it now establishes that the medical transport sector cannot benefit from the Spanish regulations on special working hours, which allows distinguishing between effective time and time of presence available to the employer. This means that the ruling not only affects shift staff, but also those who perform other tasks.

In Extremadura, the ruling covers the personnel who are on duty at work centers (whether they are ambulances, medicalized or life support units and health centers), those at continuing care points, those who are in the base of the company and scheduled transportation workers who currently do 40 hours of driving a week plus 16 hours of presence for things like waiting for patients they have taken to an appointment to take them back. In principle, it would not affect employees who perform shifts located at home, since it is estimated that in these cases the requirement to be present at a work center is not met.

Agreement

Eduardo Guardado, representative of Ambuvital, points out that the company has more than 1,100 employees in the region. Of these, around 900 are affected by the Supreme Court ruling. They currently perform more than 2,200 hours a year, in some cases even much higher, counting the effective time and the time of presence, as allowed by the current collective agreement.

With the Supreme Court’s ruling, they will go to a limit of 1,800 hours per year, to which extras can be added up to a maximum of 80. Consequently, in order to comply with the Extremeño Health Service contract, it would be necessary to incorporate more workers. Ambuvital estimates that around 400 would be needed, almost 40% of the current workforce.

This has two effects. On the one hand, a reduction in the salary of the workers, who are exposed to losing work time and supplements such as the on-call bonus. This can lead them to charge about 1,100 euros a month, around the minimum wage.

On the other, an increase in costs for the company. The company would have to pay its current workers less, but in return incorporating those 400 employees would mean much higher expenses due to contributions, to which more material would have to be added. Saved estimates that, only in personnel, it would mean about 9 million euros more per year. The contract signed in January amounts to 39 million for twelve months. In this way, if the Supreme Court ruling is fulfilled and the Junta de Extremadura does not contribute more funds, the contract would be ruinous and the conditions to liquidate it would be met.

concerned workers

Lander González Calvo, from the USO union, is the president of the works council of Ambuvital in the province of Cáceres. As he explains, the formation studies the sentence to claim payment as effective time for the hours that have been carried out above the 1,800 that the Supreme recognizes. Likewise, he points out that this ruling totally changes the panorama of the negotiation of the new collective agreement, for which he hopes that in the coming days the talks will begin again.

But he also recognizes that an undesirable situation can be generated. He gives the example of a basic life support ambulance worker, who currently in Extremadura can work 2,700 hours a year with the agreement in force. Of that amount, a good part are hours of presence, on guard at the base waiting for some warning. With the Supreme Court ruling, it could not exceed 1,800 hours a year. That limits the salary to the base salary and the transport bonus, which would mean about 1,100 euros per month, well below the current one, as estimated by the company. For this reason, he hopes that an agreement will be reached to raise the base and approach the national average, of about 1,400 euros per month. “There are many colleagues who are concerned,” he says.

As for the company, it estimates that it would need about 500 more workers to fulfill the current service, according to union estimates. That would mean more spending and therefore the Board should increase the value of the benefit in force, as well as revise upwards the tender currently underway for the next four years. “I don’t think any company wants to be in this contract knowing this,” he says. Otherwise, it will be necessary to reduce services and therefore lay off workers.

In response to TODAY, the SES affirms that it is juridically assessing the impact that the sentence may have.