Spanish Constitutional Court to opine on fundamental rights of military personnel

The Spanish Constitutional Court will review the ruling of the Supreme Court, which rejected the admissibility of a request for annulment filed by the Military Association of Troops and Seamen (AMTM), blocking consideration of the appeal.  This is historic because it is the first time that the Constitutional Court will pronounce itself on an alleged violation of fundamental rights of members of the military.

On January 29, 2019, the Constitutional Court informed the magistrate in charge of this case that she must decide first whether the fundamental rights of members of the military, as regards their access to justice, protected by Article 24 of the Spanish Constitution, was violated, as argued by the AMTM.

If in the affirmative, the Supreme Court must revoke the decision issued by the Administrative Law chamber of the Supreme Court, which closed the possibility that non-military employees of the Army, linked to the Defense Department, in non-permanent status, could continue litigating their case.

The professional members of the military have spent years complaining that, because of the law in force, the Defense Department treats military personnel differently depending on the work modality that binds them.  This situation permits massive firings of workers, who, once they have reached the age of 45, maintain long-term commitments with the institution.

At the end of 2016, professionals from different armies decided to submit to the courts what they describe as the situation of long-term "inequality" and "discrimination", over time, among workers of the same rank and identical functions, but with different connections to service.  For that reason, the AMTM began these administrative proceedings, by which they hope to obtain judicial support for their claims.

This will be the first time that the Constitutional Court pronounces itself formally, although not on the merits, with respect to the contractual regime of temporary workers, which keeps a part of the Defense Department workers in an unprecedented legal battle.

The objective is to obtain a positive ruling from the Constitutional Tribunal, which permits them to continue with the appeal before the Supreme Court, in order to exhaust all the levels of the Spanish legal system.

If they do not receive a favorable judgment, the military will end their legal journey in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.  There, they aspire to obtain a judgment that will permit them to recover the compensation that they have not been able to receive to date, as well as demanding an urgent legislative change to the current rules.