The Generalitat Valenciana has made the decision to change the date of an exam corresponding to a public opposition because an applicant alluded to not being able to do it on a Saturday for religious reasons. This is the second case of a test postponement in less than a week against an opposing member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
This is reflected in the resolution of the Ministry of Health signed by the general director of human resources Carmen López Delgado, which establishes the change of date of the Obstetrics and Gynecology competition-competition from Saturday 18 to Sunday 19 June, which will take held at the La Fe University and Polytechnic Hospital in Valencia from 9:00 a.m.
According to this document, the department now led by Miguel Mínguez would have decided to directly modify the day of the exam instead of changing the time of the test only to the opposition in question, as estimated by the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV) as a precautionary measure to another request to delay the exercise until sunset.
Two different decisions that have outraged a hundred opponents, some of whom will have to modify hotel reservations in the capital of the Turia or cancel guards established for the day on which the exam will now take place. For example, Dr. Elena Casado has reported on her Twitter account that “they don’t give you options even when you have surgery, but in a non-denominational country they do this.”
Even other tweeters wonder what would happen “if someone admitted is a practicing Catholic and objects on the same grounds that Sunday is the Lord’s day of rest. Would the call be moved again?
For its part, the Medical Union of the Valencian Community (CESMCV) has reported that its legal services are assessing the possibility of taking legal action, in the face of “the harm and damage that this modification may cause to aspiring doctors.”
In the resolution communicated to the applicants, the Generalitat hides behind its power to change the date of the test with only two weeks in advance. Something that did not happen with the examination of a specialist in Ophthalmology, since it will take place this weekend.
In this case, the TSJ accepted the requested precautionary measure and established that the Administration carry out the test on the applicant “at a time that does not coincide with the religious Saturday”, that is, the same day of the call, but from the Sun.
The magistrates apply to this case article 12.3 of Law 24/1992, which approves the State Cooperation Agreement with the Federation of Evangelical Religious Entities, which provides that the examinations, oppositions or selective tests convened for admission to the Public Administrations may be appointed on an alternative date for the faithful of said churches “when there is no reasoned cause that prevents it.”
In its order, facilitated this Wednesday by the Valencian High Court, the chamber applies the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court and other higher courts of justice on similar cases and, after analyzing the conflicting interests, concludes that not accessing the claim of the appellant would force her to be “constrained to choose between fidelity to her religious convictions and the opportunity to enter the administration offered by the selection process.”
To do this, the applicant must appear at the test location on the day and time of the general call (May 28 at 12:00 p.m.) provided with her ID, and once identified, she will remain “incommunicado in a room until, at the official time of sunset, you can begin your exam with the same content and duration as the rest of the applicants».
