The possibility of earning close to a full salary while not working for five years before retiring was introduced in the Catalan Parliament in 2008 and is still in force today, although at a lower rate following last year's reform. It is an unprecedented figure in Spain, but not in the world: the European Union followed suit in 2015 and has since allocated 53.5 million euros to pay civil servants who are no longer working in the institution. Through a request for transparency made by ARA, the EU institutions have detailed their payments to officials who no longer provide effective services up to five years before retirement with amounts that, on average, stand at 8,227 euros per month, but in some cases can be close to 20,000 euros per month.

The age-based leave controversy is still causing a stir, after this Tuesday the Parliamentary bureau approved that civil servants over 60 could continue to draw salary despite not working. This Thursday the decision – which came out of negotiations between Parliament workers and the Bureau representatives of the table – was to be formalised by the Committee on Institutional Affairs (CAI), but the vote has been postponed. According to several sources consulted by ARA, this was because Speaker Laura Borràs is not satisfied with the outcome of the negotiation and intends to rethink the model, still very similar to the one she had pledged to eliminate. Thus, the matter will no longer be discussed urgently and instead, it will be at a new meeting of the Parliamentary bureau –which could be convened for this Friday– which will debate whether to introduce changes in the document agreed with workers.

In February, Parliament eliminated age-based leave, the system that allowed staff to continue receiving their full salary without working, but left the door open to regulating a similar system based on negotiation with the workers. This Tuesday the Bureau approved the new mechanism, which will have to be validated by a parliamentary committee. It protects exactly the same model which had previously been eliminated: civil servants who have worked for Parliament for a minimum of 15 years will be able to continue drawing their salary despite not working during the last five years before retiring. What changes, then? Basically, the annual amount they will receive. They will no longer receive the amount they would receive if they were working –this will only be the case for people who applied before the rules were changed– and, instead, will receive the same amount as they would if they retired. That is, Parliament will grant paid leave for staff over the age of 60.

Age-based leave was created in 2008 during Ernest Benach's presidency of the Catalan Parliament. There are several theories about what led the chamber to promote this unprecedented figure that allowed civil servants to collect virtually 100% of their salary without attending work in the five years previous to their retirement: some say it was created to accelerate some senior officials' departure; others, that it was a request by the staff council; there are even those who claim senior staff pulled strings to have a golden pre-retirement – Imma Folchi was then secretary general and is one of the beneficiaries of age-based leave. Be that as it may, what is certain is that the system was kept in place for 14 years and was not eliminated until ARA reported on January 17 that in 2021 Parliament allocated €1.7m to paying 21 officials who no longer worked there. This Friday, Speaker Laura Borràs explained that, in total, since 2009 the Catalan Parliament has paid €14.4m to people who no longer worked there.