Hermenegildo Hernández, former manager of Casinos in Tenerife, did not cause any financial harm to the public funds of Cabildo de Tenerife and did not commit any irregularities when dismissing eight workers with voluntary severance packages from the three casinos on the island between 2019 and 2020.
Judge Alejandro Carrillo, from the Investigating Court number 5 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, not only dismisses the idea that Hernández committed misappropriation of public funds, but concludes that his actions actually had the opposite effect: saving money for Casinos de Tenerife, a company dependent on the Cabildo.
In this way, the judge dismisses a case reported last term by the Government of Cabildo at the time formed by PSOE and Ciudadanos. “The reported facts do not warrant criminal reproach,” the judge makes clear, aligning with the arguments of the Public Prosecutor and the defence of the sole person investigated, Hermenegildo Hernández.
Furthermore, the judge states in the ruling that Hernández “acted at all times with the intention of achieving a financial advantage for the casinos, through the reduction of the total amount of salaries”.
The judge states in the ruling that Hernández “acted at all times with the intention of achieving a financial advantage for the casinos, through the reduction of the total amount of salaries”
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The dismissal of eight workers from the three casinos in Tenerife between 2019 and 2020, as part of a staffing regularization process that affected more than 30 workers of this public company since 2012, was in compliance with the law as a response to the severe economic crisis these casino venues under the Cabildo were facing. This is the conclusion of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which is now supported by the judge in deciding to close the case.
A few months before the local elections in May 2023, after which CC and PP took over the leadership of the island’s Corporation, the Government team led by then socialist Pedro Martín reported to the Prosecutor’s Office on alleged irregularities. These focused on the granting of voluntary severance packages in the companies of the casinos Playa de Las Américas (Adeje), Taoro (Puerto de la Cruz), and Santa Cruz from 2012 to 2020, when Coalición Canaria was in charge of the insular Government.
Specifically, the documentation submitted to the public ministry refers to the voluntary severance packages that, according to the complaint, “could be classified as false disciplinary dismissals and mismanagement” that resulted in the payment of 1.57 million Euros in indemnities.
Casino of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. / Carsten W. Lauritsen
As defended by the insular Government of Pedro Martín, some workers “received a severance package higher than their annual salary, exceeding the compensation for an objective dismissal” through the conciliation procedure and “without even a court ruling requiring it.”
The judge’s interpretation, consistent with the Prosecutor’s, contradicts the complaint: “The three casinos were in a critical economic situation, with the investigated party opting to terminate the contracts of those employees with lower performance, fully aware that those dismissals were unlikely to be successful, as it is extremely unusual for a dismissal based on performance decline to be upheld in labour law. In other words, no financial loss has been incurred”.
The total amount of the compensations was 292,888 Euros, while the legal maximum was 888,717 Euros. Hence, the prosecutor concluded that from the investigation “not only is it clear that no harm has been caused” to public funds, “but benefit”.
Sources close to the former manager of Casinos de Tenerife criticise the use of public resources to issue a biased complaint
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Sources close to the former manager of Casinos de Tenerife cited by Mírame Televisión, the media outlet that broke the news of the judicial dismissal of the case on Thursday, criticise the use of public resources to make a biased complaint. They refer to the former Government of Cabildo de Tenerife formed by PSOE and Ciudadanos.
They also question that “the right to defence of a worker with over 30 years of experience” in the administration was denied. “Damage has been done to the reputation of an honest individual based on false accusations,” they conclude.
The same sources claim that they are “taking legal actions against the two individuals who filed the complaint,” referring to María Elena Rodríguez, who held the position of non-director secretary of the three casinos of Cabildo de Tenerife, and Lidia Patricia Pereira, former insular director of Human Resources and Legal Advice, currently serving as the general comptroller of the Autonomous Community of Canarias, as detailed by Mírame TV.
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An appeal can be lodged against Judge Alejandro Carrillo’s decision. At the time, the CC group considered the alleged labour irregularities reported by the PSOE in the casinos as “a smokescreen.” The dismissals were made “in compliance with the law,” they clarified. Now back in charge of the insular Government, CC will attempt once again to sell these three gaming venues.
