The High Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM) has ruled that the dismissal of a Correos worker was improper, who had accumulated more than 21 years of temporary contracts, and has ordered the public company to choose between reinstating him or paying him 45,920.06 euros, to which are added other 1,000 euros for the harm arising from abuse of temporary contracting. The ruling recognizes that the employee should have had the status of permanent labor staff since October 2008, when he passed a selection process to access a stable position, although he ultimately did not secure one of the offered posts.
The judgment 851/2026, identified as STSJ M 12109/2026, represents a change from the decision initially adopted by the Social Court, which had recognized the worker as indefinitely not fixed and set compensation of 22,960.03 euros. The court in Madrid now increases that amount and rejects the arguments of Correos, which argued that the employee’s seniority should be calculated from 2022 and not from 2003, due to interruptions between successive contracts.
The case places under judicial focus the prolonged use of temporary contracts to cover permanent needs in public companies. However, the ruling does not mean that any employee who has accumulated years of temporariness can automatically become permanent. In this procedure, it was decisive that the worker had previously passed a selection process to access a stable position, a circumstance the court considered sufficient to apply the most recent case law of the Supreme Court.
Dismissed while on sick leave after more than two decades at Correos
The employment relationship of the affected person with Correos began on April 26, 2003, when he started providing services to the public company through fixed-term contracts. In the following years, he continued to carry out distribution tasks in different locations until he joined an office of Colmenar de Oreja, in Madrid. In October 2008, he took part in a selection process called by the company to access a position of permanent labor staff and managed to pass the tests, although his score was not sufficient to obtain one of the available positions. Despite this, he continued working for Correos through successive temporary contracts.
His last contract began on February 7, 2023 and provided that he would remain in the position until it was definitively filled through the company’s selection procedures. At that time, he received a salary of 1,939.91 euros gross per month, with the extra payments prorated. On May 21, 2024, he began a medical leave as a result of a workplace accident and, while he remained in a situation of temporary incapacity, Correos assigned his position to another worker who had obtained a permanent post in an entry call.
The company decided to terminate his contract on September 18, 2024, claiming that the vacancy had been definitively filled. One day later, the employment relationship of the employee to whom the position had been assigned began. The delivery person, who had been linked to Correos for more than two decades, rejected the decision and went to court to seek recognition of his status as permanent. He also requested that the dismissal be declared null and void or, in the alternative, improper, in addition to compensation of 30,000 euros for abuse of temporariness.
The court of first instance partially upheld his claims, but it did not recognize him as permanent; rather, it recognized him as an indefinite non-permanent, a figure used in the public sector when an indefinite employment relationship is found without all the requirements being met to access a permanent position. The worker appealed this decision and Correos filed another appeal to challenge the calculation of his seniority.
The key to the ruling: it approved the tests to become permanent, even though it did not grant a position
The High Court of Justice of Madrid has sided with the worker on one of the fundamental issues: his employment relationship should be considered permanent from October 20, 2008, maintaining the seniority recognized since April 2003. To reach this conclusion, the judges apply the doctrine established by the Supreme Court in its judgment 475/2026, of May 11, which opened the possibility of recognizing permanent status for public employees subject to abusive temporary contracting when they had previously passed a selection process to access a permanent position.
Case law distinguishes between those who have passed the tests required to access public employment, even if they ultimately did not obtain a position, and those who have worked for years through temporary contracts without overcoming a selection procedure of those characteristics. In the first scenario, the Supreme Court considers that the principles of equality, merit and capacity, required to access public employment, may be understood as accredited, which allows a fixed employment relationship to be recognized when an abuse of temporality occurs subsequently.
Applying this criterion, the Madrid court considers that Correos could not justify the termination of the contract as a simple completion of a temporary relationship. The employee had to have been recognized as fixed and, therefore, his dismissal had to be examined in accordance with the rules applicable to that employment status. The Chamber concludes that the dismissal was improper and obliges the public company to choose between two alternatives: reinstating the delivery worker under the conditions prior to the cessation, with the corresponding back pay, or paying him compensation of 45,920.06 euros.
To that amount is added an independent compensation of 1,000 euros for the harm associated with the abuse of temporality. Consequently, if Correos opts to definitively terminate the employment relationship by means of compensation, the sum of both amounts reaches 46,920.06 euros. The declaration of impropriety, therefore, does not mean that the worker automatically recovers his position: the choice between reinstatement and compensation corresponds to the company, in the terms established by the ruling.
Justice calls for investigating the abuse of temporality at Correos
The judgment also addresses the consequences of keeping an employee in a situation of contractual instability for years. Although the worker did not prove specific economic harm derived from each temporary contract, the court understands that the abusive extension of that situation may justify additional compensation, following the doctrine of the Supreme Court on the need to establish effective measures against these practices.
In this case, the additional compensation is set at 1,000 euros, an amount lower than the 30,000 euros that the affected person had initially requested. The magistrates take as reference the criteria established by jurisprudence and the sanctioning regime provided in the Law on Offences and Sanctions in the Social Order (LISOS) to assess the consequences of non-compliance.
In addition, the TSJ of Madrid has agreed to send a copy of the ruling to the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate, with the aim that it examine the facts and process, if appropriate, the sanctioning procedure for the irregularities detected in hiring.
The decision adds to other judicial rulings related to the abuse of fixed-term employment at Correos and in various public administrations. Over the past few months, several courts have analyzed cases of employees who accumulated numerous contracts to carry out functions that responded to structural needs, a practice that may give rise to the recognition of labor rights and compensation when the legal requirements are met.
Nevertheless, the judgment does not establish that all temporary workers in the public sector have the right to become permanent merely due to the passage of time. The doctrine of the Supreme Court requires examining the circumstances of each employment relationship and, in particular, whether a selection process has been overcome that makes it possible to certify the constitutional principles for access to public employment.
In the case of this delivery person, the 21 years of temporary contracting, together with the passing of the access tests in 2008, have proven decisive so that the High Court of Justice of Madrid recognizes his status as permanent and declares the dismissal improper. Correos will now have to face the economic and labor consequences of a relationship that began in 2003 and ended while the worker was still on sick leave.