Overview

• The Juzgado de lo Contencioso nº15 in Barcelona nullified Vic’s hiring rules for a cemetery and maintenance operario and ordered the call to be reissued requiring the basic A2 level of Catalan.
• The ruling found the B2 demand was applied indiscriminately, was not connected to the job’s functions, created an exclusionary barrier, and constituted direct discrimination by language.
• The court described the vacancy as an eminently manual position without complex linguistic interaction and ordered the municipality to pay €1,000 in legal costs, after a challenge filed by lawyer Ángel Escolano of Convivencia Cívica.
• Junts leaders condemned the decision, with Carles Puigdemont comparing it to a return to Franco-era monolingualism and Mayor Albert Castells vowing to appeal to the highest instance; party secretary Jordi Turull called it a crusade against Catalan.
• Civil groups diverged, as Òmnium argued B2 is the minimum to guarantee service and work in Catalan, while the case lands after several Catalan municipalities rolled back similar requirements following legal complaints.