Valencia's public broadcaster À Punt has approved a new job structure eliminating 29 positions, including that of Victòria Rosselló, the meteorology head who warned about the October 2024 DANA floods. The CCOO union denounces ideologically motivated layoffs and calls for protests. The company insists no one will be fired and aims for greater organizational agility.
The Audiovisual Corporation of the Valencian Community (CACVSA), manager of À Punt, has driven a restructuring that eliminates 29 positions in its new Job Positions Relationship (RPT), approved in line with Law 2/2024 requiring review within six months. Among those affected is Victòria Rosselló, head of Meteorology, who in Sergi Pitarch's book '29-O. The Hours of Chaos' detailed forecasts for the cold drop on October 29, 2024, which caused 229 deaths in the province of València. Rosselló stated: “From the moment it rains torrentially in Turís or Chiva, the water takes three hours to reach Paiporta,” and criticized the lack of reaction despite real-time data availability.
The CCOO union, which revealed the details, accuses the company of acting with “urgency” and without a strategic plan, impacting six of the twelve linguists, as well as positions like the head of innovation, programming subdirector, and others. “This is the straw that breaks the camel's back; we must stand firm against these staffing movements that, in some cases, point directly to ideological motives,” the union declares, starting “black Fridays” with gatherings of workers in black attire and planning further actions to halt changes before the Generalitat's Public Function office.
À Punt responds that the RPT “does not contemplate firing anyone” and maintains the salary mass without increases, eliminating vacant or intermediate positions to create 31 new ones, such as eight journalist editors, an additional meteorologist, and a radio directorship. Regarding Rosselló, they assure: “It has never been considered that Victòria Rosselló would not continue as a meteorologist at À Punt,” and she will be reassigned as a base meteorologist. For linguists, they reduce from 12 to six to “properly size the department,” comparing to TVG (six linguists) or IB3 (four), arguing that many journalists already hold C1 or C2 level in Valencian, avoiding systematic corrections. The new radio directorship seeks “specific leadership” for editorial strategy and digitalization, aligned with public service.
“With the new RPT, agility, flexibility, and dynamism are sought,” the entity states, adapting the 2017 staff to 2025 needs, with more journalists and technicians to be more competitive, without focus on specific individuals.