New rules to reduce temporary public employment in Spain

Automatic summary, not yet reviewed

1. Limits the appointment of interim civil servants: for vacant positions, a maximum of three years; for substitutions, the strictly necessary time; for temporary programs, three years extendable by twelve more months; and for excess workload, nine months within eighteen. It also sets objective grounds for ending the appointment without any compensation.
2. Establishes that the selection of interim staff and temporary labor personnel must be public and follow the principles of equality, merit, ability, publicity and speed. Being appointed as interim staff never grants career civil servant status.
3. Creates a system to control temporary employment: irregular actions lead to liability, any act that breaches the maximum time limits is void from the start, and affected temporary staff receive compensation of twenty days of fixed pay per year of service, up to a maximum of twelve monthly payments.
4. Authorizes a third stabilization process for structural positions held on a temporary and uninterrupted basis during at least the three years before December 31, 2020. Job offers must be published before June 1, 2022, calls before December 31, 2022, and processes must end before December 31, 2024.
5. Allows municipalities to entrust the actual management of staff selection to provincial councils or other bodies, and provides for an exceptional one-time competition for positions held on a temporary and uninterrupted basis before January 1, 2016.
6. Orders monitoring and streamlining measures: an annual report by the Ministry of Finance and Public Function on temporary employment, the possibility of appointing interim staff to vacancies arising from retirement, and measures such as shorter deadlines or digitalization of selection processes.

Who it affects

• Interim civil servants and temporary labor personnel: They face maximum time limits, objective grounds for ending their appointment, and the right to compensation in certain cases of non-compliance.
• Public administrations: They must fill vacancies with career staff, prevent abuse of temporary employment, and complete the stabilization processes within the set deadlines.
• People seeking a public sector job: They can apply to the stabilization processes, which are decided through a competition based on equality, merit and ability.
• Municipalities: They can entrust the actual management of staff selection to provincial councils or other bodies.

Words worth knowing

Funcionario interino (interim civil servant)

A person appointed on a temporary basis to cover an urgent need of the administration, until the position is filled by a career civil servant.

Proceso de estabilización (stabilization process)

A selection process to turn positions that had been filled on a temporary basis into permanent jobs.

Concurso-oposición (competition and examination)

A selection system combining a merit phase (concurso) and an exam phase (oposición).

Nulo de pleno derecho (void from the start)

An act that has no legal value from the beginning, as if it had never existed.

TREBEP

Texto Refundido de la Ley del Estatuto Básico del Empleado Público, the basic Spanish law governing public employment.

It summarizes the law as published in the BOE. It is written by artificial intelligence and may contain mistakes: the official text is what counts. Read the official text · How we make summaries