The University of Zaragoza must pay the researchers of the Margarita Salas program the amounts corresponding to the employer’s Social Security contributions that were deducted from their grants. The rector has already issued the order to execute the Supreme Court ruling, which confirms the previous ruling of the High Court of Justice of Aragón.
The academic institution received on July 14 the Supreme Court’s ruling, dated July 1, 2026, which dismisses the appeal filed by the University. The court thus ratifies the obligation to return to workers the amounts deducted from their remuneration, in addition to applying the corresponding surcharge for delay.
THE ORIGIN OF THE CONFLICT
The conflict has its origin in the contracts made within the Margarita Salas program, a state line of postdoctoral grants aimed at young researchers who had obtained their doctorate during the two years prior to the call. The grants allowed them to join a university or research centre different from the place where they had done their thesis for two or three years.
These grants, announced by Spanish universities in 2021, were financed with funds from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. The University of Zaragoza considered that the subsidy received could also be used to pay the employer’s Social Security contribution for the contracts, based, as reported, on the indications sent by the Ministry of Universities and on the usual operation of other public calls for research contracting.
«This practice was common in most universities,» they have stressed. However, the Federation of Teaching of Workers’ Commissions filed a collective dispute against the University of Zaragoza. The High Court of Justice of Aragon concluded that the employer’s contributions had been deducted from the salary corresponding to the researchers and ordered their return.
The University appealed the decision on the grounds that «it had not irregularly deducted from the endowment of the aid any amount to meet the payment of Social Security contributions». He has also criticised that the Government’s rules of España «forced public universities to offer a specific number of places without requiring them to contribute or co-finance and with the endowment established by the Ministry».
THE UNIVERSITY IS STUDYING TO CLAIM FROM THE STATE
The Supreme Court has finally confirmed the Aragonese sentence, including the surcharge for late payment and the sanction imposed for recklessness, although it has not sentenced the University of Zaragoza to pay the legal costs.
The University assures that it complies with the resolution and that it will execute the corresponding payments. At the same time, it is considering initiating a claim for financial liability against the State to recover the economic damages derived from an action that, according to it, «followed at all times the instructions received from the Ministry of Universities».
