- There will be a last stabilization process for interim workers in structural positions not included in the last stabilization processes
- Article 10 of the consolidated text of the Basic Statute of the Public Employee is amended to avoid high rates of temporality
- The Royal Decree-Law was approved after meeting twice the Sectoral Conference of Public Administration, the General Negotiating Table of Public Administrations and reaching an agreement yesterday with CC.OO, UGT and CSIF
The Council of Ministers has approved the Royal Decree-Law on urgent measures for the reduction of the temporality in public employment, following the holding of two Sectoral Conferences of Public Administration, the meeting yesterday of the General Negotiating Table of Public Administrations and the subsequent agreement reached with the unions CC.OO, UGT and CSIF.
This reform is motivated by several reasons, which justify its approval:
- It is an effective solution to a problem inherited, entrenched, resulting from inappropriate regulation and years of a set of inappropriate practices.
- An essential leap towards a modern Administration that is dimensioned to the needs of its services.
- Legal security, faced with the current situation of uncertainty that affects both temporary employees and public administrations.
- A conscious and determined commitment of this Administration to be an example of stable and quality employment.
As for the urgency of the reform, it is due to two fundamental reasons:
- First, it is a requirement derived from the latest jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the Supreme Court (SC), which compromises current legislation.
- Second, it is a commitment to public administration reform that we must fulfill in the Plan for Recovery, Transformation and Resilience (PRTR).
Taking these recommendations as a reference, component 11 of the PRTR incorporates as the first of the measures of Reform 1 the adoption of a new normative instrument, to place the temporary rate below 8% in the Spanish public administrations as a whole.
Current situation
The reform has as one of its objectives to complete the stabilization processes of temporary employment contemplated in the Laws of General Budgets of the State of 2017 and 2018 with a final stabilization process that affects all the seats of a structural nature, budgetary endowed, temporarily and uninterruptedly occupied at least in the three years before December 31, 2020 and that have not been included in the stabilization processes of 2017 and 2018.
Deadlines are established to comply with the commitments, so that the resolution of these selective processes must end before December 31, 2024.
In these selective processes, the selection system will be that of contest-opposition, being able to reach the contest phase of 40 percent of the total score, in which the experience in the body, scale, category or equivalent will be taken into account.
In addition, two measures specifically aimed at addressing the situation of temporary staff affected by the stabilization processes are contemplated, in the event that the corresponding selective processes are not exceeded:
The invitations may provide for those people who do not pass the selective process, but who have obtained a certain score that is considered sufficient, their inclusion in specific or already existing exchanges of interest.
Failure to overcome the selective process by the person occupying the post or position subject to stabilization will result in a financial compensation of twenty days of their fixed remuneration per year worked, up to a maximum of twelve monthly periods, taking into account that no one who does not participate in the selective process will be financially compensated.
Prevent high rates of temporality in the future
The consolidated text of the Basic Statute of the Public Employee (TREBEP) is reformed and the cause and end of the appointment of interim civil servants are introduced. The reform of article 10 clarifies the cause and end of the appointment of interim civil servants, which can only take place in 4 modalities:
- By vacancy: for the coverage of this type of places when it is not possible to do so by professional staff, with a maximum duration of three years.
- By transitory substitution of the headlines: for the time strictly necessary.
- For the execution of programs of a temporary nature: they will not exceed three years of duration, extendable by twelve months more according to the provisions of the Public Service Laws that develop the TREBEP.
- For excess or accumulation of tasks: with a maximum period of nine months within a period of eighteen months
Improvement of the definition of the figure of the interim staff member
The note of temporality is reinforced by expressly discarding any expectation of permanence. The reasons for termination of the interim relationship (regulated coverage of the post, organizational reasons leading to the abolition of the post, termination of the term expressly authorized in your appointment or of the cause that led to your appointment) are clarified.
The general regime of career civil servants also applies to interim staff, except for rights inherent in the status of career civil servant.
Prevention
An analysis of the structural causes of temporality in public employment at the different levels of public administration and in each sector is needed to improve planning, so that in the future there will be no recourse to the interim appointment or hiring of temporary staff for permanent or structural functions.
The prevention measures must begin with the improvement of the quality of the data, for this, the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Public Service will prepare an annual report to monitor the situation of temporality in public employment.
Liability for non-compliance
Sanctions of an effective and dissuasive nature are contemplated at three levels:
- Three years after the appointment of the interim staff, the interim relationship shall end and the vacancy may be filled only by career staff, unless the relevant selection process is abandoned, in which case another interim staff appointment may be made.
- Liability in case of non-compliance with the measures included in Article 10 of the TREBEP, any act, pact, agreement or regulatory provision, as well as the measures adopted in its development, whose content directly or indirectly entails the non-compliance by the Administration of the maximum periods of stay as temporary staff, being considered null and void.
- Compensation for civil servants and labour personnel. The reform provides that non-compliance by administrations with the maximum periods of stay results in financial compensation for the interim staff members concerned equivalent to 20 days of their fixed remuneration per year of service, with periods of time of less than one year being prorated for months, up to a maximum of 12 monthly periods. The right to this compensation arises on the date of the effective cessation and may not be perceived in the event that the termination of the service relationship is due to disciplinary reasons or voluntary resignation.
In the case of temporary workers, the reform provides that the financial compensation due to non-compliance with the maximum term of stay will consist of the difference between the maximum of 20 days of their fixed salary per year of service and the compensation due to the termination of their contract, up to a maximum of twelve months.
Graduality
The reform applies only to the general administration sector, with a one-year deadline for the adaptation of specific legislation for the teaching and statutory staff of health services.
Needs of small municipalities
The proposal pays special attention to the needs of the local administration and, in particular, small municipalities, since collaboration mechanisms can be articulated with other administrations that favor the realization of selective processes in an agile way.