CSIF appeals to the National Court against the forced retirement of 186 Renfe workers, which the other unions accepted: "It's a legal fraud"

The CSIF union (Independent Trade Union and Civil Servants' Association) has appealed to the National Court the decision by the Renfe Group to terminate 186 employment contracts due to forced retirement resulting from an agreement last June with other unions, as EL MUNDO has learned, alleging that "it constitutes a disguised collective dismissal" in a public company dependent on the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility of Óscar Puente.

In this way, CSIF argues that "these terminations of employment relationships lack cause and legal or conventional protection, and have been adopted in fraud of law, with the sole objective of getting rid of the older workers of the Renfe Group."

This comes five months after Renfe signed an agreement with the unions SEMAF, CC.OO., UGT, SFF-CGT, and SF-INTERSINDICAL, but which CSIF considers "illegal," arguing that the forced retirement agreement does not comply with legal and conventional requirements, such as the lack of publication in the BOE , the absence of authorization from the Ministry of Finance, and the failure to simultaneously hire women.

CSIF lawyer Pedro Poves asserts that the agreement reached is a partial one and that the company is using it to force workers into early retirement at an average age of 65. He adds, "There are people at Renfe who don't want to retire, yet the company is using a loophole that violates the law."

Thus, the plaintiff union points out that "the forced retirement measure is discriminatory on the grounds of age and violates the fundamental right to equality enshrined in article 14 of the Spanish Constitution."

The affected workers "thought they were going to continue because they did not have mandatory retirement and because they are happy working or because they want to contribute a little more to delayed retirement to have a better retirement," in the face of a decision "supposedly contrary to the government's reforms to extend the working age ", whose company -Renfe Group- depends on the Ministry of Transport.

CSIF requests, through the application to the National Court, that "the collective dismissal be declared null and void, or alternatively, that it be deemed unfair, and that the Renfe Group (Renfe Operadora, Renfe Viajeros, Renfe Mercancías, Renfe Ingeniería y Mantenimiento) be ordered to comply with the legal provisions and the rights of the affected workers."