New Statute to regulate employment conditions of public sector workers

In late May 2006, the Spanish Ministry of Public Administration and two of Spain’s main trade unions, the General Union of Workers and the Trade Union Confederation of Workers’ Commissions, finally reached agreement on the new Civil Service Statute. The statute introduces for the first time a unified approach to regulating the employment conditions of public sector employees in Spain. It will be submitted to parliament as a bill, following approval of the Council of Ministers and debates in the autonomous communities.

Agreement on the new Civil Service Statute Estatuto de la Función Pública) in Spain was reached in late May 2006 by the Spanish Ministry of Public Administration (Ministerio de Administraciones Públicas) and two of the trade unions representing workers in public administration: the State Federation of Public Services (Federación Estatal de Servicios Públicos, FSP), which is affiliated to the General Union of Workers (Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT), and the Trade Union Federation of the Public Administration (Federación Sindical de la Administración Pública, FSAP), which is affiliated to the Trade Union Confederation of Workers’ Commissions (Comisiones Obreras, CC.OO).

Currently, the employment relationship of civil servants in Spain is regulated by the Public Employee’s Statute (Estatuto del Empleado Público), under which the autonomous communities (regions) can draw up their own statutes. This statute is set to be amended by the long-awaited proposals agreed upon under the proposed new Civil Service Statute for all public sector employees at state, regional and local level.

Basis of new statute

The new statute will provide revised regulations concerning employment conditions for public sector employees, covering both civil servants and non-civil service staff. The fact that a statute for the civil service has not yet been approved by parliament, although the Spanish Constitution established a mandate to do so in 1978, is an indicator of how difficult it was to reach a consensus on this question. The statute, which is due to come into effect in early 2007, will regulate the work of some 2.5 million public sector employees.

The text of the statute was based on a draft version taken from a report on the subject, which was put together by an expert committee last year (ES0505105N). The signatories consider that the final version defines and provides for regulations on fundamental employment aspects of the sector, such as career paths, the code of conduct and collective bargaining procedures. Moreover, it will improve employment conditions of public sector workers, as well as the functioning of the sector’s administration.

The new statute comes at a time when the public administrations under state control have consolidated an employment model for the sector. As a result, an increasing number of temporary employees are being recruited based on employment relationships similar to those prevailing in the private sector. Therefore, in addition to providing a regulatory framework for employees of the traditional public administration model, the statute also addresses the fact that a large number of non-civil service staff are not working under the same conditions as civil servants.

Furthermore, new management models in the public sector, in conjunction with complaints from both users and the sector’s employees about its poor functioning, have given legitimacy to a controversial section of the statute dealing with employee motivation, performance assessment, and measures linking pay and performance of workers.

Criticisms from other social partners

In its first part, the proposed new statute gives special emphasis to the measures provided on motivation and performance. The signatories agreed to these measures, partly as a result of a survey of public sector workers carried out by the Sociological Research Centre (Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas, CIS). Nevertheless, other social partners have strongly criticised these measures.

Some of the smaller trade unions and some social groups linked to the civil service do not feel that they were properly represented in the drafting of the statute. They recognise that the new statute fulfils the mandate of the constitution by adopting a flexible model of employment relations and – as far as the constitution allows – by introducing private sector management practices in the civil service.

However, they disagree with the ‘performance assessment’ section, which will affect pay, professional careers, training and appointments in the sector. They consider that collective bargaining has been clarified but is subject to legal and budget criteria, which are under the responsibility of the parliament; the public administrations are also reserving the right to refuse to fulfil this bargaining in certain cases relating to the ‘public interest’.

In fact, the groups that are critical of this new statute disagree with a series of measures that they consider will introduce discretionary powers through various processes. They are particularly critical of the following aspects:

• the introduction of a ‘management staff’ category, whose working conditions will be regulated outside of collective bargaining;

• the failure to limit the proportion of temporary staff in the total workforce;

• the lack of promotions from non-civil service to civil service staff;

• the lack of specifications on the right to strike or rather the ambiguity with which this right is expressed.

Regarding the right to strike, the statute recognises it as a full right but insists that ‘essential community services’ are maintained, without, however, specifying what these services are.

Mari Luz Castellanos, CIREM Foundation