A fine verdict for the Guardia Civil: Bonuses linked to number of traffic sanctions issued ruled 'illegal'
Friday, May 9, 2014 @ 5:50 PM
GUARDIA Civil officers in Spain have won their battle against 'company' rules which meant their bonuses were affected by how many traffic fines they dished out.
The Summary of Individual Activities brought in four years ago by the force's top management linked officers' extra pay – a significant portion of their take-home earnings which is added to their basic salary – would be increased or decreased on a 'points' basis linked to their performance.
And one of the performance indicators was the 'level of service' provided when they are on traffic duty, within which was included a direct connection between bonus payments and numbers of parking or driving fines issued.
The Guardia Civil union, the AUGC, appealed against this on the grounds that it simply turned the force into a cash-collecting agency with officers effectively encouraged to seek ways of getting money out of the general taxpaying public in order to ensure their own salaries were intact every month.
It also meant a 'dangerously competitive' situation whereby police chiefs of individual Guardia Civil stations earned bigger bonuses where their subordinates slapped more fines on motorists, as well as going against the real objective of road traffic laws – that of encouraging safe driving and saving lives.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com