During the first three years of the previous regional government, 3,446 government employees were laid off. However, over 1,800, mainly in the health service, were taken on in the final year, meaning that by July 2015 the balance was 1,620 fewer than at the start of the Bauzá Partido Popular government.
This information has been given to the Balearic parliament by the government’s spokesperson, Marc Pons. He was responding to a question from Nel Martí, a member of parliament for Més in Minorca, who had wanted to know how much the layoffs have and will cost. Some compensation is still to be forthcoming this year, which will bring the total to 16 million euros. In fact, the amount that has to be paid this year will be 5.3 million, with 9 million having been paid out between 2012 and 2014 and the remainder last year. Martí suggested that the government should have entered a collective bargaining negotiation but instead had ended up with a huge cost from the process of restructuring, while it had also inflicted a great deal of suffering on employees.
The layoffs were particularly acute in government ministries and government companies. Over the four years the reduction was in the order of 28% - from over 4,900 employees in 2011 to slightly more than 3,500 in 2015.
The latest information indicates that the government currently employs 29,202 people. At the start of the Bauzá government the number was 30,822.