Do you remember August 2007 in Almuñécar? Here’s a clue; the streets were stacked with accumulating rubbish, left uncollect in the sweltering summer heat…

Well, the judicial conflict between the Town Hall and the then cleaning company, El Mirlo has finally reached its conclusion with the Town Hall freed from the obligation to cough up 13-million euros in compensation.

At the time of the strike, Juan Carlos Benavides was Mayor, in a stand-off with 80 workers from the said company. Photos of Almuñécar made the rounds of the national press and the tourist-orientated business sector was groaning under the stress of the negative impact on the summer takings.

The first court sentence was delivered 2014 and it was in the Town Hall’s favour. This was followed by an appeal before the Regional Supreme Court in 2016, which the cleaning company lost. They then decided to appeal before the Spanish Supreme Court, and despite the legal backing of an international lawyer firm, they lost again.

So now the town’s coffers breath more easily.

Editorial comment: I remember that we did a series of articles on this at the time, with special emphasis on the workers caught in the middle of the struggle between their employers and the Town Hall. Now, then years later, all of them have moved on, having retired or found other employment. What is left is the conclusion that regardless of who was morally right, it can only be considered positive that the town doesn’t have to find 13-million euros, because it would literally bankrupt Almuñécar

(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia).