Massive complaint for the fraudulent use of subsidies from the Castelldefels Hospitality School

CastelldefelsA mess. With public money and vulnerable students. This is what professors, workers, coordinators and students from the Castelldefels Hospitality School have denounced. Forged signatures, obsolete material and spaces, undeclared payments... these are the various irregularities that the Servei d'Ocupació de Catalunya (SOC) is investigating. During the last two weeks, four inspections have been carried out and dozens of people have been interviewed to determine if there has been a misuse of public money granted to the entity.

L'ARA has spoken with about fifteen witnesses, who confirm the alleged irregularities denounced to the SOC and also to the Labour Inspectorate that are occurring at the Castelldefels Hospitality School, directed by Raimon Martínez. The complaints even mention mistreatment, coercion and abuse of power towards students, many of whom are young people in vulnerable situations.

Undercover workers

"The students have lost valuable time and have worked for free, they have neither done the course nor achieved rooting," explains one of the teachers. All courses are subsidized. The majority by the SOC, which in 2025, for example, contributed more than 850,000 euros to the school; although, at times, Martínez has channeled these aids through other companies or entities. For the school to ensure the collection of this money, students must attend at least 75% of the classes. And it has been proven that there were attendance signatures of some students that were falsified by the school to guarantee the collection of money. "[The director] asked me to sign for a student," admits an administrative assistant.

The complaints also refer to the fact that Martínez made students, without being prepared, work in the school's restaurant instead of the theory and classes they were supposed to receive according to the teaching programs. "They were not prepared," admits a professor. A few weeks after starting the course, he put them in the restaurant without having learned basic questions about "sanitary issues, food handling, nutrition, or vacuum packing," explains a teacher. For him they are "free labor," adds a management person. "We were working for him, we were not doing a course," denounces a student who had given up a job to do this training that would allow her to demonstrate rooting and regularize her situation. The students, some of whom "did not speak Catalan or Spanish," went to the stoves and the dining room to serve dishes without any training, they were even scolded for how they presented the dishes to customers even though "no one had taught them how to plate." This student is emphatic when criticizing what she found: "We were never a school, but a restaurant."

The students also worked at events for which the school was hired, some even by public institutions such as the Castelldefels City Council. Without being registered with Social Security, they were paid off the books and worked outside their hours. Even on weekends. "If something had happened to the students without them being registered, what would have happened?" asks one of the teachers.

Vulnerable students

Many of the school's young people come from vulnerable backgrounds, and for those who are not Spanish citizens, attending these training courses allows them to obtain a certificate to regularize their situation. "They are people looking for roots, at social risk," summarizes a third teacher. In some courses, due to the problems detected and non-compliance with the requirements set by the SOC, some students were left without a certificate, which poses problems in demonstrating their roots. Even so, the students reported that Martínez offered them a certificate (from the school, not from the SOC) if they adapted to the restaurant's required schedules, which were not compatible with those of the course they were taking. "He told us that those who stayed later would get a certificate. He bought us with a certificate," laments a student. In a joint complaint to the SOC for one of these courses, the complainants explain that there were "coercions" to work at the restaurant and that they fear "reprisals" from the center's management.

Furthermore, in the case of those taking dual Vocational Training, they were supposed to receive a monthly financial benefit, and the money did not arrive. Weeks of delays which, for the most vulnerable, caused many headaches. "I am very alone, I was working and I quit because I saw the training as an opportunity. I have to pay bills, debts don't wait," criticizes another student who did not receive a single euro during the first month.

Teachers, staff, and students agree in pointing out that there was mistreatment of students. Some were invited to leave without reason. Others were pressured because they complained about the conditions they were in. "They kicked me out. Am I a gypsy? Because of my ethnicity?" asks a boy who found a professional alternative thanks to a teacher. A teacher reported this treatment of students by the teaching coordinator, who described the students as "pawns" and said they were "nobody," as they were at the center thanks to the "subsidy."

All consulted sources highlight very significant deficiencies in terms of school material and space. "It does not meet the requirements of cleanliness or safety. The classrooms are undignified. Changing rooms were lacking. There are no rooms to properly separate food. The machinery and materials are obsolete," enumerates a teacher who assures that the kitchen extractor is not working well, among many other deficiencies. Students, who have suffered fainting due to the high temperatures in the kitchen, do not have a dining room and have to go out into the street. To comply with the required standards for the computer lab, several witnesses report how the management faked a video making it seem like there were more computers than there actually were, many of which were personal laptops of the employees. "I cannot understand how such a space can have an accreditation," concludes one of the teachers. In this regard, the SOC maintains that the inspections carried out at the center since it was registered in 2024 have not revealed any irregularities. In 2025, two were carried out and "no significant incidents were detected nor were any complaints made by the students." Now, however, several have arrived in a few months.

Another of the aspects reported is that more than once the classes have not been taught by accredited teachers but by management staff with a script extracted thanks to artificial intelligence, facilitated by Martínez.

Background

Several people have explained that what is happening in Castelldefels had previously occurred in other entities where Martínez had worked. At least, there is evidence of three where there had been problems. In one, a foundation also from Castelldefels, the Generalitat detected irregularities in three training courses and a suspension of 41,000 euros of funds going to the foundation was made after verifying that people who were not teachers were giving classes or that student attendance sheets had been manipulated. "I discovered that he had deceived us," recalls a board member. "I know his character, I believe everything. I have seen how he manipulated company certificates to send them to the SOC," denounces an employee of one of these entities, who gives the example of a person who was hired without having to work to justify and collect aid.

While awaiting the closure of the investigation, the SOC has requested that the school, for the moment, "refrain from initiating new training actions" and has assured that it will guarantee "that students who have finished their training or who are currently undertaking it will not have any kind of affectation." L'ARA has contacted Martínez without receiving a response.

Martínez has moved from one sector to another, always obtaining public money to carry out the projects he has participated in. "The problem is that he doesn't know about cooking, and even the school's logos are wrong," summarizes a professor as an example. The image shows a knife, a fork in the center, and a spoon. The order when setting a table is not this. What Martínez does know about is subsidies. "He comes from many years of working and justifying subsidies, he knows the fine print very well," explains a former colleague. "No one enters the school who cannot be subsidized," adds a former employee.