A CLARINET participant has been fired from his place with the Barcelona Municipal Band as a consequence of not having a C1 degree in Catalan.
Regardless of having the ability to perceive the language “completely,” 53-year-old Sevillano Jose Joaquin Sanchez was sacked, regardless of having carried out with the group for 27 years.
The transfer by the Barcelona Metropolis Council utilises a controversial regulation, first handed in 2020, which requires public workers to have a ample command of the native language.
Sanchez, who has claimed to have a powerful grasp of the Catalan language after having performed in bands with Catalan and Valencian musicians for 30 years, has condemned the transfer as a use of the language as a “political weapon of discrimination,” he advised El Mundo.
“For a lot of professions it’s disproportionate and absurd,” Sanchez stated.
“However within the case of music — the language of music is common.”
His place with the Barcelona Municipal Band — an “internationally famend ensemble” based in 1886 that serves to showcase and disseminate Catalan music — went up for overview in 2022 to adjust to a 2021 regulation that sought to regularise public sector employment.
After reviewing Sanchez’s profile, the Barcelona Metropolis Council — then underneath the management of Ada Colau — rejected his phrases of employment as a consequence of his failure to display “superior” proficiency in Catalan and to cross a “obligatory and eliminatory” Catalan language check.
The Metropolis Council used a 2016 regulation to cross its judgement, which requires that public workers show ample data of Catalan, or else all different {qualifications} they maintain for his or her positions can be tossed apart and they’re, in impact, fired.
In keeping with Sanchez by way of El Mundo, the Metropolis Council provided him entry to a job financial institution for the unemployed, which is, satirically, full of jobs he can not apply for till he’s confirmed Catalan proficiency.
“In Catalonia we live underneath a linguistic dictatorship,” he advised the newspaper.
“They’re utilizing it as a device for marginalisation.”
In response to his sacking, the musician has filed a lawsuit towards the town, difficult on grounds of discrimination.
His lawyer, Angel Escolano, has alleged that it isn’t essential for Sanchez to own proficiency in Catalan with the intention to successfully carry out his duties as a musician.
“It’s evident {that a} C1 degree of Catalan will not be required to play the clarinet within the Municipal Band,” the lawyer stated.
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