SPAIN'S Armed Forces is understaffed due to laws forcing soldiers and naval officers to retire at a certain age, says the country's military association.
Its head, José Gómez Navarro, says over 2,500 soldiers left the Army and Navy last year and signed on the dole, leaving the forces below its maximum permitted number of 80,000 – which for 2010, was 86,000.
And yet the number of officials and sub-officials went up by 500.
“One supposes that the Army and Navy hierarchy should have a pyramid structure, but at the moment there are more chiefs than Indians,” says Gómez Navarro.
He says no new soldiers have been taken on as no recruitment period has been opened in the last year – a situation which is unprecedented since obligatory military service was abolished.
Most of those who have left the forces have done so because their contracts have been terminated, largely due to their age – despite EU legislation prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of age in the workplace – and a huge number are appealing against their dismissal.
Gómez Navarro says this is leading to highly-qualified Army and Navy personnel with university degrees being thrown out instead of promoted, as they should be.
Spain's ministry of defence, led by Pedro Morenés, has a budget of 5,937 million euros for this year, which is 379,440,000 euros less than in 2012.
