SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 19 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Medical Employees Union of the Canary Islands (SEMCA) has called for a strike on 26 September, demanding that the Canary Islands Health Service (SCS) revoke its recent decision to announce an examination, despite the first exceptional long-term selective processes based on merit not being completed. This action is said to violate the rules governing three ongoing selection processes—two for stabilization and one ordinary.

According to the union, Health Minister Esther Monzón is exacerbating the “legal insecurity” that has persisted since 31 December 2024 due to the incomplete completion of all stabilization selection processes initiated under Law 20/2021, enacted on 28 December to urgently reduce temporary employment in the public sector.

“Not only has she failed to reduce this temporality, which the European Union demands be under 8 per cent, but has instead seen it rise above 70 per cent, resulting in the Canary Islands Health Service holding the dismal record of the highest rate of temporary contracts among all public administrations in the State,” they stated.

Furthermore, the union indicates that “Esther Monzón has also failed to meet another non-repairable deadline established by national internal regulations, as recently confirmed by the Supreme Court, which creates legal precedent for the complete execution of selection processes.”

The doctors specifically refer to a three-year deadline following the publication of the public employment offer, after which all affected selection processes should be fully completed.

The highest judicial body confirms that this deadline is not meant for the publication of the announcement, as previously argued by the legal services of the Canary government, but for the complete execution of the selection process, a deadline which has long been surpassed since 27 May 2025.

In this “environment of complete legal uncertainty,” they emphasise that the established sequential order for initiating and concluding each selection process is now being entirely ignored. The established rules state that once one process (the Stabilisation Merit Contest) concludes, the next (the Stabilisation Competitive Examination) shall commence. However, SCS director Adasat Goya has decided to publish the examination announcement without completing the Merit Contest or issuing the corresponding appointment resolutions.

INCREASING LEGAL UNCERTAINTY

“In addition to heightening legal insecurity, Esther Monzón and Adasat Goya are causing unnecessary harm to the vast majority of doctors and temporary staff at the SCS who should not be required to sit an examination. This also adversely affects patients and users of the public health service, who will face cancellations of tests, consultations, or surgeries on days when examinations occur, all due to the proven incompetence of those in charge of Canary health,” the doctors underscore.

As a result, SEMCA has resorted to the courts to defend the rights of the affected workers, while also supporting other strikes called by different medical unions—such as CESM next Monday.

“It is clear and evident that neither Esther Monzón nor Adasat Goya have been or are capable of managing the primary issue facing the public health service in the Canary Islands. This growing problem is the shortage of doctors and medical personnel, which has not arisen from a lack of medical students but has been progressively exacerbated by political leaders who have consistently worsened the already poor working conditions for doctors and medical staff,” they explain.

They further indicate that “fed up with such treatment, many prefer to leave the SCS and seek opportunities in other countries or in the private sector.”

SEMCA also demands that the President of the Canary Islands Government, Fernando Clavijo, dismiss Monzón and Goya, or that “he himself assumes all corresponding responsibilities to the citizens, users, and patients of the Canary Islands.”