The Costa del Sol faces its second tourist season without the recreational and leisure offer that the Tivoli World amusement parklocated in Benalmádena, and which was completed last May 50 years with its doors closed because of the legal disputes and the debt of 11.2 million that besiege the space.
The journey in the courts of the amusement park began in 2007 due to its sale and subsequent possession, which has lasted for 14 years and finally resolved by the Supreme Court (TS) in September 2021 with the inadmissibility of an appeal filed by the former owner company, the Company International Parks and Attractions SA (CIPASA), granting the right to the buyer, the Tremón real estate group.
During all these years, the park has been exploited by CIPASA considering that the real estate group had not paid the 25 million agreed upon in the sale -generating a debt of 11.2 million of which 9.5 correspond to public debt-, for which it entered into a bankruptcy necessary in August 2020 due to Tremón’s request, as he was considered by the Mercantile Court number 1 of Malaga -which decides the legal procedure-, as “creditor”, as explained at the time by the bankruptcy administrator, Juan Antonio Sánchez .
The resolution of the judicial conflict regarding the possession of Tivoli between the two companies by the Supreme Court has not translated into an improvement in the situation of the park, which is facing its doors closed since September 2020, the last tourist season in which it offered its leisure services and with a staff that has not been paid for months when the corresponding public aid expires.
In this way, the bankruptcy necessary continues its course and after requesting the insolvency administrator to cease CIPASA’s activity in November 2021, last May the negotiation period for the Employment Regulation File (ERE) presented by him for the termination of the 79 employment contracts, which ended on June 23 without reaching an agreement between the parties.
This situation implies that the magistrate of the Commercial Court number 1 of Malaga must issue a “auto” indicating whether or not the termination of employment contracts is appropriateexplained the bankruptcy administrator this week, based on a judicial resolution issued by the Social Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA) in Malaga last May and which derives from the complaint filed by the CCOO union against Tremón for an alleged tacit dismissal, not to pronounce on the subrogation or assumption of the workforce -which belongs to CIPASA- after obtaining possession of the amusement park, and that the Andalusian high court ruled that it was not competent.
East judicial ruling of the autonomous high court has been appealed by the CCOO to the Supreme Court, as explained by the Secretary of Services of the union, Lola Villalba, who has detailed that the workers’ assembly held last Wednesday, June 29, has decided to challenge itself before this Social Chamber of the TSJA in Malaga the “order” issued by the Mercantile Magistrate regarding the origin or not of the termination of the employment relationship.
According to the trade unionist, this future resource that will be presented before the Andalusian high court is based on the consideration of the union representation of the workforce that “neither CIPASA nor the judge have the capacity to terminate the contracts of some workers who we understand are from Tremón”, declared Villalba.
Villalba has revealed the “discontent” of the Tivoli workersmany of whom have dedicated 40 years to selling happiness in the amusement park, assuring that people are “disheartened”, although they do not lose the “hope” to continue fighting and that “the Court agrees with us”.
Also, trust that “at the political level things can be done” and hopes that after the formation of the new Andalusian Government exist “any chance that he hears our desperate cry” and look for a solution for Tivoli World, remembering that the park has been “an incentive for family tourism” for five decades, in addition to being the “leisure and cultural center” of the Costa del Sol for several decades.
The connection of the amusement park with the Courts seems to have no end, and after resolving the conflict over the possession of the recreational space in the TS, he now faces two parallel procedures such as the bankruptcy resolution and the appeals filed by CCOO against the resolution of the TSJA of not being competent to deal with the subrogation of the workforce by Tremón and against the ERE.