The Mayor of Estepona, José María García Urbano, has announced that the Council has been forced to present plans for a reduction in the number of municipal employees after union representatives apparently refused to consider wage reductions as one of the means to achieve the necessary €6 million cuts in personnel costs.
The measure would affect about 190 workers who were hired without the process of selection. The Council is set to open negotiations with the unions to discuss the situation and to try and achieve some sort of consensus. The negotiations are expected to last about one month.
Estepona Council owes around €60 million to suppliers, some of the invoices dating back eight years. The Mayor stated that the previous socialist administration maintained that the city was €150 million in debt, wheras in reality the figure turned out to be €300 million.