The Jupol union has denounced the situation of 10 national police officers from the Police Intervention Units (UIP) who were transferred from Valencia to Palma and who, since today, Monday, have been left without accommodation ‘due to the inaction and negligence’ of the Directorate General of Police.
Despite being on duty as reinforcements for the summer security operation, which includes tasks related to the security of the Royal Household and the Marivent Palace, where the royals stay during the summer, the officers have no accommodation for the next seven days, having exhausted an insufficient advance payment for expenses.
According to the union, the officers received an advance on their allowances from the Directorate General of Police (DGP), but this has proved ‘completely insufficient’. ‘They still have seven days left on their assignment, but they have no guaranteed place to sleep. Today they are literally being thrown out of the hotel with no alternative or clear instructions from their superiors,’ warned the union.
Jupol has pointed out that this situation is not an isolated incident, but ‘part of a structural collapse of the payment system’. This, the union maintains, is affecting the entire force and jeopardising the operational capacity and dignity of the National Police. The union has lamented that the current allowances are ‘absolutely insufficient’ and do not reflect the real cost of living, especially in places such as the Balearics, where accommodation in high season is ‘unaffordable’ without additional funding.
This imbalance, Jupol points out, is exacerbated when police officers on deployment have to rely on minimal advances that do not even arrive on time or are processed through an obsolete and collapsed system, something the organisation considers ‘unacceptable’. The organisation has denounced the lack of funds to advance allowances, unpaid bills, police stations without air conditioning, the use of unmaintained vehicles and compromised minimum services.
‘This collapse is yet another example of this government’s legislative inaction and lack of political will to update the royal decree on national police allowances, which is clearly out of date,’ Jupol maintains in the islands. For this reason, the union has requested that ‘all political and administrative responsibilities’ be investigated for the improvisation and institutional neglect that has led to the situation reported on Monday.
Furthermore, it has announced that, if immediate solutions are not found, it does not rule out taking legal action and organising nationwide union protests. ‘We will not allow national police officers to continue to be treated as second-class workers,’ Jupol concluded.