The Interior Ministry will pay the minimum wage to aspiring firefighters, Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police), and rural police officers.

BarcelonaThe mobilization of aspiring firefighters has finally borne fruit. The Ministry of the Interior has announced that the Catalan government is finalizing a decree-law with urgent fiscal measures to ensure that future firefighters, as well as Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) and rural police officers, do not earn less than the minimum wage (SMI) during their time at the academy. As explained by AHORAFor weeks, the aspiring firefighters had been mobilized and had even demonstrated in front of the headquarters of the Catalan emergency service.

This Monday, the Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, first met with the spokespersons for the Interior Committee of the groups that facilitated the investiture of the Socialist government (PSC, the Comuns, and ERC) to inform them of the decision to promote this decree, which must be approved by Parliament. She then met with the firefighters' unions and the platform for candidates to announce that they would finally be paid the minimum wage. At the same time, she announced the amendment to Law 5/1994, regulating fire prevention, extinguishing, and rescue services in Catalonia, to introduce the right to compensation for volunteer firefighters who suffer permanent physical injuries while on duty.

The candidates were asking for this minimum wage during the training period, which lasts eight months and requires them to be available from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The training begins in May. "Most of the candidates are over thirty years old and have financial responsibilities," argued the platform's spokespersons. In fact, they explained that a union agreement was signed with the Ministry of the Interior in 2023 that included this salary equalization within a two-year period, but it hasn't been implemented. The reason? The government argued that it was included in the new budget for 2025, which was ultimately not approved, and that's why the measure was dropped. It will finally be implemented in the form of a decree law.

"We have gone into debt"

The candidates emphasize that the monthly salary they receive during their training period is 861 euros gross, about 300 euros below the minimum wage. They are the future firefighters leaving the latest class, which numbers 300 people, and they estimate that on average each one spends 11,000 euros on the process until they get their position. They add that the salary equalization would represent one million euros for the administration, 0.047% of the Interior Ministry budget and 0.299% of the budget of the General Directorate of Fire Prevention, Extinguishing, and Rescue. "We have gone into debt to get here," they insisted two weeks ago.

Now there is satisfaction among the members of this platform. "We celebrate that this is a clear example of struggle and self-organization, and we believe that the mobilization of these last weeks has been key to promoting a measure that will help guarantee decent conditions during their training," they stated in a statement. For its part, the Department of the Interior defended in its statement that the measure "promotes equity and social justice within the administration, ensuring that interns receive fair and just compensation for their work."