Sagunto asks SEPE to extend rural brigades' contracts to June
Sagunto's city council unanimously asked SEPE, Spain's state employment agency, to extend the summer rural maintenance brigades' three-month contracts so the 59 workers can start in June instead of July.
Sagunto City Council unanimously approved a motion at its September plenary session asking the State Public Employment Service (SEPE), Spain's national job agency, to extend the hiring period for its summer rural maintenance brigades beyond the current three months, so that work could start in June instead of July. The proposal, put forward by the PSOE (the Socialist party) and defended by councillor Ana María Quesada, also asks the state agency to make the work schedule more flexible, better spreading working days and rest days around the hottest weeks, and to increase funding if needed, without cutting the number of workers hired or the scope of the work.
The programme the motion refers to is the scheme to promote agricultural employment in depressed rural areas, run by SEPE under Spain's Ministry of Labour and Social Economy. It is a subsidy line that funds town councils across several Spanish regions for rural investment projects. For years it was known as the Rural Employment Plan (PER); it was renamed the Agricultural Employment Promotion Plan after a 1996 labour agreement extended it to more regions, including the Valencian Community. With these subsidies, Sagunto hires a group of workers every summer for forest clearing and farm-track maintenance, combining temporary jobs with the upkeep of the municipality's rural land.
This year 59 people make up the brigades, tasked with keeping farm and forest tracks clear so ground crews can act quickly in the event of a wildfire and, if needed, help evacuate people and equipment. Their work also keeps forest, farming and semi-urban land free of obstacles, and this summer it included improvements to the bed of the Palancia river to reduce flood risk. The Palancia runs for about 90 km and flows into the Mediterranean between the municipalities of Sagunto and Canet d'En Berenguer; it is this riverbed that the brigades maintain each summer to cut hydrological risks. For residents, the direct result of this work is less scrub built up along tracks and developments near the hillside, which lowers the chances of a wildfire reaching inhabited areas and makes it easier for fire crews to drive in if needed.
The underlying issue behind the motion is about working conditions: the programme's current rules cap contracts at three months and require the work to be finished by 30 September, which leaves the brigades working right through July and August, the hottest months and the riskiest for anyone doing physical outdoor work. Adding June would spread that effort over a milder month and cut exposure to extreme heat across the whole contract, as well as giving room to organise holiday shifts without squeezing the work into the toughest months of summer. In short, the motion puts the safety of the 59 workers ahead of the volume of tasks still to be done.
The motion also puts figures on the challenge facing the council: Sagunto's municipal area covers 132.43 square kilometres, of which 4,193 hectares are forest land. That amount of rural and forest land, combined with the wildfire risk that peaks in summer, is the argument the local government uses to explain why the current three-month limit falls short, and why it is asking SEPE to review the programme's conditions before the next call for applications.
With this declaration approved, the council is now forwarding the request to the Ministry of Labour and Social Economy and to SEPE itself, though the motion sets no firm deadline for a response. If it succeeds, the change would not depend on Sagunto alone, since it would affect the programme's general conditions across the different Spanish regions where it applies — potentially giving other town councils with similar brigades more room to manoeuvre in future summers. According to Sagunto City Council, with additional background from Wikipedia on the Agricultural Employment Promotion Plan and the Palancia river.