Alex Trelinski
A BRITISH teacher in Mallorca says she’s being discriminated against since Brexit because she’s not an EU citizen and is taking the matter to court on the advice of the European Commission.
Serena Farr has lived in Mallorca since 1993 and speaks Spanish and Catalan, as well as her native tongue.
She has had residency for 30 years and her partner is a Mallorcan and their two children have Spanish nationality.
For the last decade, Serena has taught the English language in public schools, but her name and that of another British national were excluded from a list of ‘available teachers’ ahead of the 2021-22 academic year.
Despite her work record, she was told that following Brexit and the fact that she was not a European Union citizen, she could no longer be employed by the Ministry of Education.
She filed an appeal which was rejected and then took the issue to the European Commission who met with education bosses and told them that they were breaching British citizen rights covered under the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement.
Serena was also sent a document from Brussels making it clear that she was allowed to apply for any job in Spain barring security or state positions.
Speaking to Ultima Hora, she said that the Ministry of Education only partially relented in that they allowed her to only apply for temporary teaching positions.
“I did not accept this and have now filed a lawsuit for discrimination,” said Serena.
A legal advisory service of the European Commission told her that ‘we strongly urge you to legally challenge this as it is unlawful discrimination on the grounds of nationality’.
Serena, who is now working in a Palma language school, appealed for support to ‘denounce this situation’ which goes against ‘UK citizens on Mallorca trying to earn a living’.
