The Valencia regional government has announced that the public broadcaster RTVV is to be closed down after a court declared a labour force adjustment plan (ERE) at the company null and void.
To re-employ the employees who had been dismissed under the ERE would cost the administration around 40 million euros, a sum it considers it cannot afford due the state of the region’s finances.
Following the ruling by the Valencia regional High Court on the ERE, The administration stated that, unfortunately, the only viable option was to close the public radio and television service of the region.
The High Court ruled that the lay-offs violated rules regarding EREs in a number of aspects and infringed upon workers’ basic rights as enshrined in the Constitution. The ruling can be appealed to the national Supreme Court. If the government decides not to appeal the decision, it will have to pay the salaries of the workers that were dismissed from the time they were let go in August of last year.
The ruling came just as RTVV was in the process of privatising the bulk of its programming, except for news broadcasts.