The hiring of the director general’s driver at Telemadrid has prompted a formal complaint from the works council. The driver became a direct employee of Radio Televisión Madrid (RTVM) on July 15, while a four-year contract with Auto Lavapiés for chauffeured-vehicle services remained active. The union argues that the appointment bypassed established recruitment procedures and wants the hiring file and related decisions examined.
Comisiones Obreras (CC OO), which leads the works council, says the driver had previously performed the same duties as an Auto Lavapiés employee under the public contract. The union challenges the hiring method and RTVM’s decision to exclude the new position from the broadcaster’s collective agreement, questioning the arrangement’s transparency and legal basis.
RTVM management says the driver’s employment and the external vehicle-services contract are separate matters, and maintains that the hiring complied with labor regulations. Management also says the corporation’s legal department had not yet received the union’s complaint. It has stated that creating a new job category outside the collective agreement would require agreement between management and the works council.
Union representatives asked Human Resources for details on the contract type, job classification, working hours, selection procedure and criteria. They also asked whether the position had been advertised internally or externally to uphold equality, merit and transparency. The company confirmed the hiring date and contract type and said the position was outside the collective agreement, but provided no details of the selection process.
The union says the appointment was later described as temporary, pending a definitive selection process. It argues that the driver’s role is not a management position and should so be covered by the collective agreement, citing Article 34 of Law 8/2015 governing Radio Televisión Madrid. The dispute partly turns on whether RTVM’s rules and the agreement allowed the position to be filled this way.
The creation of the position is another point of contention. The union says it has seen no record of prior approval by the company’s governing bodies or submission to the Board of Directors. Its complaint asks labor inspectors to review the hiring file and selection documentation, the justification for the contract type, the reasons for excluding the job from the collective agreement, and whether the position was included in the official staff list and properly authorized.
The union also says director general José Antonio Sánchez signed the employment contract, rather than the usual signatory, the head of Human Resources. The works council has asked that this arrangement be considered as part of the review, while acknowledging that the signature alone does not establish a violation.
The dispute comes amid a longer history of scrutiny over RTVM’s contracting and governance. A 1992 report by the RTVM council, based on an Arthur Andersen audit, identified commitments signed after contracts and a lack of documented objective criteria in the selection and evaluation of several television productions. That finding concerned production deals, not the driver’s appointment, but reflects longstanding concerns about transparent documentation of decisions at the public broadcaster.
Public-sector recruitment notices in Madrid commonly set out the selection method, eligible classification groups, qualifications and merits required of applicants. Such calls offer a benchmark for transparent, reviewable selection, although the rules governing RTVM’s employment regime must be assessed on their own terms. The basic issue is whether the appointment complied with the broadcaster’s internal rules, its collective agreement and applicable labor law.
The case has also renewed attention to recruitment practices in Spanish public institutions, including scrutiny of local appointments after the PSC called for an independent audit after the mayor of Ripoll’s daughter was hired as a police officer. At Telemadrid, the works council’s complaint focuses on how the driver’s position was authorized and filled, as well as its relationship to the still-active service contract.
