MADRID — The Valencian regional government announced Tuesday it will close the public regional broadcaster following after the supreme court reversed a decision already in effect to fire 1,000 employees to cut costs.
The Valencia government said it could not foot the €40 million cost of readmitting the employees and was forced to shutter the Valencian broadcaster.
The pubcaster dismissed the employees earlier this year to cut costs, but the move was appealed by the unions, which argued the dismissals violated labor laws. The court ruled the employees be reinstated, prompting the local government’s reaction that it could no longer afford the broadcaster.
The decision to fire the employees was characterized as “a restructuring of the public business sector, with the goal of making a lighter, more sustainable administration,” the regional government said in a statement. “In the case of [public broadcaster] RTVV, the accumulated debt, assumed by the regional government surpasses €1 billion, a figure that makes it very clear that RTVV is unsustainable in the measures at the time.”
The government said readmitting the 1,000 employees that had been let go would be “a cost the government cannot assume at this time.”
