The Cabildo of Tenerife Cleared of Wrongdoing in Eight Casino Staff Dismissals

The dismissal of eight employees from the three casinos in Tenerife between 2019 and 2020 complied with legality as a response to the economic crisis faced by these establishments dependent on the Cabildo. This is the conclusion of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which supports the request of the only person under investigation – the manager, Hermenegildo Hernández – to close the case.

Prosecutor Fernando García not only rules out any signs of crime. He goes further and argues that these voluntary resignations did not cause harm to public assets, but rather a benefit.

In a document sent to the judge of the Court of Investigation Number 5 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife on the 1st of the past month and disclosed this Tuesday, the prosecutor requests the dismissal of an investigation opened following a complaint by the PSOE of Tenerife when it led the Cabildo Government during the previous term (2019-2023).

A few months before the local elections of May 2023, after which CC and PP took over the leadership of the Island Corporation, the government team led by the Socialist Pedro Martín at that time sent a report to the Prosecutor’s Office outlining alleged irregularities.

These focused on the granting of so-called “voluntary resignations” carried out in the companies of the casinos Playa de Las Américas (Adeje), Taoro (Puerto de la Cruz) and Santa Cruz from 2012 to 2019, when the Coalition Canaria was in charge of the Island Government.

Specifically, the documentation and annexes submitted to the public ministry refer to the voluntary resignations that, according to the complaint, “could be classified as false disciplinary dismissals and unfair management” which led to the payment of 1,579,945 Euros in compensation.

According to this report, some employees “received a compensation greater than their annual salary, exceeding the compensation for objective dismissal” through the conciliation process and “without even a court order requiring it”.

Prosecutor Fernando García now believes that at least eight of these dismissals are justified as the three casinos were going through an economic crisis and the payroll volume of the staff “far exceeded the national average of similar entities”. García understands that the decision of the manager to reduce the staff’s payroll is consistent with the poor situation of the companies, which he describes as “critical”.

He also supports Hermenegildo Hernández’s decision to reach an agreement with the employees whose contracts were terminated in the conciliation processes held at the Mediation Service (Semac) as it was known that dismissals for poor performance were unlikely to succeed if they went to trial.

The total amount of compensations was 292,888 Euros, when the legal maximum was 888,717 Euros. Hence, the prosecutor concludes that from the investigation, “it is not only deduced that no harm has been caused” to public coffers, “but a benefit”. With this conclusion, the public ministry rules out the crime that the casino manager is accused of – embezzlement of public funds, as it is proven that the dismissals have not caused harm to public assets.

“From the statements of the accused [the manager] and from witnesses, it was clear that the person under investigation acted at all times guided by the intention of obtaining a financial advantage for the casinos, by reducing the total amount of salaries,” concludes the Prosecutor’s Office.

Now the judge will have to decide, based on the public ministry’s document, the manager, and the actions taken, whether, as these two parties request, the case is closed or, on the contrary, a trial is opened.

Already at that time, the CC group considered the alleged labour irregularities reported by the PSOE in the casinos “a smokescreen”. Dismissals “were carried out in accordance with the law,” they clarified. Now back in the Island Government, CC will try again to sell these three gaming halls.