The civil servant who claims to work and not be treated like a "piece of furniture"

Barcelona / Vilanova i la GeltrúClose a gate at two in the afternoon. It is the only task María José had during her entire working day at the Vilanova i la Geltrú City Council. This civil servant denounces that the administration has kept her for three years without doing any "effective" work after she had uncovered irregularities with the social rental fund deposits. They have moved her to various departments and she has always felt "isolated": she has been on sick leave since October and has several open proceedings with the Garraf council. "I have gone up to seven hours without doing anything. I want a dignified job, that I am not considered furniture, but part of a team," she laments.

The unions support her, as they consider that the worker has been "cornered" since she "uncovered" the problem with the deposits, when it came to light that a worker had diverted 30,000 euros of public money. "They don't know what to do with her," explains Josep Farré, from CCOO, who laments that the administrative "machinery" "has no heart" and says that the solution in this case was easy: put her in the mediation department, "where they need her," and not move her to different areas without assigning her any productive task, simply to "get rid of her".

Farré believes that cases like this happen "very often" and many people end up in administration who "do nothing". In some cases, these are workers who fall into "oblivion" and "are set aside" because they are not of the same political color as the governing team. When this happens, the administration has "endless resources" and can spend as many years as necessary litigating with workers who have reported workplace harassment, who end up overwhelmed and renouncing their claims. In María José's case, she had gotten politically involved and had supported other employees who had open litigation, and she believes this has had an influence.

A study by CGT in 2024 revealed that complaints of workplace harassment in public administration grew by 354% in five years. The majority, more than 70%, in the Department of Education. However, almost 3 out of 4 complaints were not admitted for processing, highlights the communication secretary Jordi Gil, who laments that if this happens, the affected person ends up being "re-victimized". According to data from Public Function, between 2015 and 2025, 245 cases were reported within the Generalitat, of which only 40 showed signs of workplace harassment and an investigation was opened.

There is a second type of civil servants who also do nothing at work, according to Farré. In this second drawer is the wrongly named "elephant graveyard" that the administration has become: people "locked in an office", with "high salaries", waiting for retirement. "Give them work, get the most out of them because they have capacity. Is it inefficiency or prevarication?", the unionist asks himself.

Constant changes

María José has a postgraduate degree in public health and had secured a permanent position as a technician. Before her appointment to this position and the consolidation of her role, she began a journey through various areas. She was placed in licenses because there was a workload and in housing, which is when the bond scandal erupted. Subsequently, she was supposed to go to mediation, she accepted it because she had obtained a master's degree, but the agreement with the government team did not materialize, as there was a change in political color after the municipal elections. From then on, she was moved to environment, tax management, and health.

Without any assigned job that made her feel useful: “It’s very hard, I was just waiting for the time to leave; I took the opportunity to write a lot, a diary.” She even had her desk in the middle of a “walkway,” as if she were part of the furniture: “I spent the day crying.” In the meantime, sick leave for anxiety and constant back-and-forth with the council. She suffered from tachycardia and the doctor gave her sick leave. And here lies one of the problems: she considers it a work-related illness, the mutual insurance company does not see it that way, and now it has to be resolved in court. She even activated the workplace harassment protocol and requested to be recognized as a whistleblower by the Anti-Fraud Office, but neither of them moved forward and she did not obtain greater protection against possible reprisals. “Maybe I am very critical, I don’t know, I just want to sit down, talk, and clear things up. I need to put an end to this, whatever it takes,” she confesses.

For data protection reasons, the Garraf council avoids commenting on the specific case of this worker, but assures that staff changes are always made “based on objective criteria” and that in situations of conflict with an employee there is always mediation and even mentoring, two avenues that have been explored, without agreement, with María José.