Crucial court ruling expected on public sector bonuses, retroactive payments

The plenary of the Council of State will convene on Friday to decide on the constitutionality of a 2012 law scrapping a special bonus paid out on the Christmas, Easter and summer holidays and the size of the retroactive payments due to public sector employees who challenged it.

In late December 2018, a section of the top administrative course ruled that those cuts violated the constitution, following a legal precedent set by the country’s Supreme Court in 2015.

The verdict came after a mass litigation brought by thousands of pensioners and pensioners’ associations.

Judicial sources said the plenary is expected to uphold the section’s ruling, but the verdict will focus on whether retroactive payments will be calculated from 2012, when the first cuts were made, or from the day the verdict was issued in 2015.

The proceedings will be watched closely by the government’s economic team which will be called to deal with the fiscal impact of the ruling.