Prosecutor's Office Archives Investigation into Dana Fines Annulled by Generalitat

The public prosecutor closes the proceedings opened following the Labour Ministry's complaint regarding the annulment of fines to four companies. The investigation sought a possible crime of administrative prevarication.

The Provincial Prosecutor's Office of Valencia has archived the proceedings it had open regarding the annulment, by the Valencian Generalitat, of fines imposed on several companies following the Dana of October 29, 2024. The decision comes after studying the information and documentation collected, as confirmed by this newspaper through sources familiar with the case, in a report first published by castellonplaza.com.

The origin of the investigation lies in a complaint from the Labour Inspection against that annulment. The Ministry of Labour urged the Prosecutor's Office in March to verify whether the Generalitat's decision could constitute a crime of administrative prevarication.

Among the actions taken, the public prosecutor had requested from the State Secretariat for Labour the files of the fines that the Provincial Labour and Social Security Inspectorate of Valencia imposed on companies for workplace accidents that occurred during the flooding or for serious risks.

The files affected UTE Conservación Valenciana, À Punt, Baxter SL, and Plastic 7A SL. They confirmed that the companies had not adopted the necessary preventive measures to ensure the safety of their workers, exposing them to situations of serious risk. In one case, that risk materialised in the death of a worker.

According to the department led by Yolanda Díaz, the Valencian labour authority annulled those files "totally unjustifiably", consciously avoiding sanctions against the companies for the issues highlighted by the inspectors.

"Arbitrary and potentially criminal"

For that reason, the Labour Ministry referred the annulled sanctioning procedures to the Prosecutor's Office, considering that the annulment decision was "arbitrary and potentially criminal". Now, the public prosecutor has closed the proceedings without finding indications of a crime.

The archiving means that the investigation into the Generalitat's handling of labour sanctions linked to the Dana is closed from a criminal standpoint, although the decision does not prevent the matter from returning to the courts if new elements arise.