- The Minister of Territorial Policy and Public Service highlights that the new agreement signed today is the result of dialogue and understanding with the unions in the General Negotiating Table of the AGE
- Teleworking will be voluntary, reversible, with the same rights and duties for the personnel in this modality as the personnel in face-to-face modality, subject to the guarantee of the provision of public services and will have identification of objectives, monitoring plan and evaluation of compliance
- The Administration will provide for teleworking a computer equipment with data card, applications and tools and in weekly computation, the general rule of teleworking will consist of two days in face-to-face mode and three in teleworking mode
The Minister of Territorial Policy and Public Service, Miquel Iceta, highlighted “the firm step towards a future that is already here”, with the agreement for the regulation and implementation of teleworking throughout the General Administration of the State, “fruit of dialogue and understanding with trade union organizations”.
Iceta, which has signed with the trade union representatives of the Public Service the document that includes the general principles for the development of teleworking in the General State Administration (AGE), has highlighted the objectives of the agreement: “Promote the presence of the State Administration in the territory, especially in areas of demographic decline, modernize the organization of work through the achievement of objectives and performance evaluation, contribute to environmental sustainability, generalize the use of new technologies and recognize teleworking as another modality.”
The AGE General Negotiating Table ratifies the agreement
The signing of the agreement followed the meeting of the General Negotiating Table of the General Administration of the State, chaired by the Secretary of State for Territorial Policy and Public Service, Víctor Francos, in which the Government and the trade union forces of the AGE are represented.
The trade union representatives who have signed with the minister the agreement with the general principles of teleworking in the AGE, which from now on will have to be developed, have been Carlos Martínez Navarrete, president of the national sector of the AGE of the CSIF; Carlos Álvarez, federal secretary of the AGE sector of the FeSP-UGT; Jose Manuel Vera, secretary general SAE FSC-CCOO; and Rubén Méndez Amor, national secretary of the State sector of CIG.
Teleworking, one more modality
The Minister of Territorial Policy and Public Function has stressed that the AGE will take advantage of the digital transformation of the public sector, within the framework of the Digital Strategy 2025, and the incorporation of the Administration of the 21st century as a lever policy of the Plan of Recovery, Transformation and Resilience, to advance in new ways of providing public services for the benefit of citizens.
In this way, he added, “Spain boosts its ability to converge with the countries around it in the necessary implementation of teleworking in the AGE”.
With the normative development of teleworking in the AGE, one more modality of work is regulated, “totally effective and compatible with face-to-face”, which was in progress, but accelerated during the pandemic.
The regulation of teleworking in public administrations begins in 2020, when the Government, together with the autonomous communities and the FEMP, at the Sectoral Conference of Public Administration, and also together with the unions, at the General Negotiating Table of Public Administrations, agreed to reform the Basic Statute of the Public Employee by agreeing a basic regulation on which each administration could then develop its own regulation, as the AGE begins to do today.
From now on, a period of consultation and diagnosis with the different ministries is opened to determine the profile of public employees who will be able to opt for teleworking and, in the coming months, the Government will approve a Royal Decree of teleworking in the AGE to also contribute, in the words of the minister, “to provide solutions to areas in demographic decline and to provide coverage of places in certain parts of the territory that are usually vacant, within the Strategy against the Demographic Challenge”.
The minister referred to dialogue, as a nuclear element of the action of the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Public Service: “With the dialogue, we are moving forward in the search for the most appropriate solutions to the needs of public employees and employees for a better provision of services to citizens.”
Iceta has also valued the permanent dialogue with the unions present in the AGE, with whom the Government has reached important agreements in recent years, such as the one signed today, and has again reached out to the union representatives today “to continue facing from the meeting other great challenges that we have ahead of us”.
General Criteria Agreed Today for Teleworking in AGE
The public administrations reached an agreement, included in Royal Decree-Law 29/2020, of 29 September, on urgent measures in the field of teleworking in the Public Administrations and human resources in the National Health System to deal with the health crisis caused by COVID-19, which reforms the consolidated text of the Basic Statute of the Public Employee (EBEP), incorporating the basic regulation of teleworking.
To develop this regulation in the AGE, the agreement is signed today, with the general criteria for teleworking, highlighting the following:
- Teleworking will be voluntary and reversible, its use will be subject to the guarantee of the provision of services and will be applied to jobs likely to be performed by this modality, upon request and authorization.
- Each ministerial department or public agency must carry out a prior study of the posts that can be carried out through teleworking, with identification of objectives, evaluation of compliance, monitoring plan and evaluation.
- Teleworking implies the maintenance of rights and the staff who provide their services through this modality will have the same duties and rights, individual and collective, as the staff in face-to-face modality. They will also be entitled to adequate health and safety protection in teleworking.
- Access to the provision of services through teleworking will have to be done through public calls on a regular basis or through permanent management of requests under conditions of equality.
- Applicants must be in active service, criteria such as disability, health, victims of terrorism or gender violence may be taken into account, and the authorization must require prior report from the hierarchical superior.
- The Administration will provide for teleworking a computer equipment with data card and applications, office and cybersecurity tools necessary for its activity, as well as training.
- The general mode of teleworking, in weekly computation, will consist of two days in face-to-face mode and three in teleworking mode. The teleworking day will be the one that corresponds according to the work schedule, work instructions and schedules, and mechanisms of time control, signage and management monitoring will be available.
- A form of teleworking may be organized with a face-to-face service provision of at least 10 per cent per month, specifically designed to deal with special organizational circumstances, such as promoting the presence of the State administration in the territory, in areas of demographic decline, or providing services in geographical areas that are difficult to cover.