Vic City Council condemned for demanding too much Catalan from a civil servant

BarcelonaVic City Council has been sentenced by a Barcelona court for requiring excessively high levels of Catalan to perform manual labor, according to the judge in Barcelona's 15th administrative court case. The city council of Osona called a public competition to fill a position on the brigade as a cemetery and maintenance worker, with the requirement of having a B2 level of Catalan, an intermediate level. Following a complaint from Catalan Civic Coexistence, the court ruled that "the indiscriminate elevation of the requirement to level B2 is not related to the functions" and "creates an access barrier with an exclusionary effect for those who do not demonstrate that level." Therefore, it declares the conditions void and specifically requests that an A2 level of Catalan, the basic level, be required.

The ruling, which has been released, The World The ruling, which ARA has already had access to, analyzes what it means to have a B1 and A2 level and argues that "the site is eminently manual, without the requirements of complex linguistic interaction," and that therefore, the basic level is sufficient. The law states that, indeed, for personnel selection processes, it is necessary to prove knowledge of Catalan, both spoken and written, "to the degree appropriate to the duties of the position."

The ruling states that the City Council commits "direct discrimination based on language" and forces it to pay a €1,000 fine. "The requirement of knowledge of the co-official language is legitimate if it is proportionate and related to the duties of the site," it states, so the judge believes that the B2 requirement is disproportionate. The legal services of the Language Policy Department are already studying the case.

The mayor of Vic, Albert Castells (Juntos), told RAC1 that he doesn't understand "this judicial offensive against the language" and argues that the requirement of a 4th year of compulsory secondary education for civil servants will serve to ensure that the worker "can guarantee the linguistic rights of the citizens of Vic, in the cemetery" of Vic or anywhere else. Vic City Council, which has a Language Department, is one of those that has implemented a municipal plan to strengthen Catalan, and one of the first actions is to "guarantee that administrative staff have a minimum level of language proficiency," including workers subcontracted by the council. Castells speaks of judicial "persecution" of the language while asserting that he has the support of all entities and the majority of citizens to implement "policies that are normal and logical for any nation in the world to guarantee its language."

Francoist Monolingualism

"The City Council will appeal all rulings," Castells states. "We cannot allow ourselves to be intimidated." This is not the case with other city councils, which, in response to complaints from Catalan Civic Coexistence, have acted preemptively and lowered the level requested for maintenance positions from B1 to A1, which is the lowest level available. Civic Coexistence has been challenging the public calls for applications from various municipalities, according to The World, such as Barcelona, ​​Hospitalet de Llobregat, Lleida, and Mollet del Vallès.

Reactions have been swift. For Carles Puigdemont, it is proof that "through rulings, we are returning to the monolingual regime imposed by Franco." The Platform for the Language considers it a "new example of the judicial offensive against Catalan" and calls it "unacceptable." They also emphasize that what should be prioritized are "citizens' rights and linguistic rights, which must be guaranteed, and what must be adapted is the language requirement to satisfy these rights, not the other way around."