Archive:Public employment - Spain

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<Introduction: simple language, not too long, kind of executive summary>

Regional and administrative organisation

Introduction

Spain, the capital of which is Madrid, is a parliamentary monarchy and the division of powers is set out in the 1978 Spanish Constitution. It has a surface area of 505,990 km2 and a population of around 46 million inhabitants. It has been a member of the EU since 1986 and is a member of the United Nations, NATO and other international organizations as well as a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol.

System of government

The Constitution lays down the bases of democratic co-existence based on the principles of freedom, justice, equality and political pluralism.

The king, symbolizes the historical continuity of Spain and is a unit factor for all Spanish people. He acts as Head of State and as such, arbitrates and moderates the regular operation of the institutions and assumes the highest representation of the Spanish state in international relations.

The General Courts have Legislative Power, and as such, exercise the functions of legislating and controlling the actions of the Government, whereby they are made up of two Chambers elected for a period of 4 years by means of popular vote: the Congress of the Deputies (Congreso de los Diputados) (350 members) and the Senate (Senado) (264 members); the latter is the Chamber of territorial representation.

The Government represents the executive power, and as such, manages national and foreign policy, civil and military administration and national defence. It is led by a President, who has a vote of confidence from the General Courts, and the Ministers appointed by the President. The associated government body is the Council of Ministers.

The General Council of the Judiciary Power is the governing body of the Judiciary Power, which exercises its functions with full autonomy from the Government. Its main objective is to ensure the independence of the Judges and Magistrates in the exercise of jurisdictional duties.

Regional Organization

Spain is organised into three levels of autonomy: State Administration, Autonomous Communities and the Autonomous Cities of Ceuta and Melilla, and Provinces and Municipalities making up the Local Administration. Spain is currently organised territorially into 17 Autonomous Communities, 2 Autonomous Cities, 50 Provinces and 8,111 Municipalities. They are governed by the following Institutions:

A. Autonomous Communities:

• A Legislative Assembly, elected by popular vote by means of a system of proportional representation.

• A President of the Community, elected by the Assembly from among its members and appointed by the King. He/she is responsible for the management of the Government Council, the supreme representation of the respective community and ordinary representation of the state in the Council.

• The Government Council, which is presided over by the President of the Community, performs executive and administrative functions and is politically accountable to the Community Assembly.

B. Local Administration is made up of Provinces and Municipalities:

• Provinces. Their governing institution is the Provincial Council, comprising of a President and Members who are elected by the City Councils and their duty is to ensure cooperation of the municipalities. There are no Councils in the autonomous communities with a single province.

• Municipalities. Their governing institution is the City Council comprising of the Mayor and Councillors. The latter are directly elected by popular vote and secret ballot. The Councillors in the Municipal Plenary elect the Mayor by absolute majority. If a majority is not obtained, the leader of the most voted list is proclaimed Mayor.

Public Administration

Public administration is defined in the Constitution as a democratic country and representative of a politically and administratively decentralized State. Therefore, there are a range of Public Administrations in Spain, each with their own legal status and autonomy to manage their own affairs and competences.

The Autonomous Communities assume the competences defined in their own Statutes of Autonomy, which are the basic institutional regulation in the Autonomous Community, applying the distribution of powers between the state and the communities as set out in the Constitution, which differentiates between three types of competences:

• Exclusive competences of the State.

• Exclusive competences of the Autonomous Communities.

• Competences that may be shared between the State and the Autonomous Communities.

The State reserves the power to draw up basic regulations that ensure the equality of all Spanish citizens throughout the state and cohesion between all regions.

Public Employment Structure

Regulation

Law 7/2007, of 12th April on the Civil Service Basic Statute (EBEP): This is a law that establishes a homogeneous model for the Civil Service, whilst respecting the competences of the other regional and local administrations in order to adapt these general provisions to their specific conditions. On the other hand, it sets out the common rules applicable to the different groups of public employees.

Public Employee Categories:

• Civil Servants are subject to a statutory system of Civil Service and are regulated by Administrative Law. In general. Public Administration posts are filled by civil servants.

• Non-civil service employees are subject to an employment contract and are regulated by Employment Law (Workers’ and Collective Agreements Statute); they may only hold certain posts.

Bearing in mind this restriction, all Public Administrations (State, Regional and Local) have or may have the following categories of public employees:

Professional Civil Servants: These legally appointed employees are linked to a Public Administration by a statutory relationship regulated by Administrative Law for the performance of professional services.

Interim Civil Servants: On duly justified grounds of need or urgency, interim civil servants are appointed as such for the performance of professional civil servant functions in accordance with the circumstances set out in the Civil Service Basic Statute.

Statutory Staff: They have a functional relationship with special conditions set out in their own statutes.

Contractual Workers: By virtue of a formalised written contract through any of the staff recruitment methods set out in employment legislation, contractual workers provide services that are paid by the Public Administrations. Depending on the contract duration, this may be permanent, for an indefinite period of time or temporary.

Temporary Staff: By virtue of temporary appointment, temporary staff may only perform functions that are expressly classified to be functions of trust or expert advice, whereby they are paid from the budgetary credits set aside for this purpose.

Management: Their system shall be developed by the State and the Public Administrations in accordance with the principles established in the Civil Service Basic Statute and others.

Organization of the civil service

Recruitment

Recruitment is carried out using the following competitive procedures: competitive examination (passing tests), competition (exceptional system in which merits are verified and assessed) and competition-examination (passing tests and merit assessment), according to the constitutional principles of equality, merit and ability.

The structure of the public service system is mixed: Corps and Scales for civil servants, as well as contractual employees.

A. Corps and Scales: This groups civil servants by means of:

• Civil service entry requirements,

• Recruitment procedure

• Functions or positions that may be held or performed:

— General Corps for common functions in the administrative activity.

— Special Corps for functions of a certain career or profession.

B. Positions

Positions homogenously group together the functions or activities performed in a specific administrative unit and serve to:

• Understand exactly the number and type of staff required,

• Ensure that positions are assigned to the best suitable candidates,

• Determine the pay to be received by those performing the jobs.

Statistics: The total number of civil servants is 2,636,900. Of these, there are 575,021 in the General State Administration, 1,332,844 in the Autonomous Communities, 629,505 in Local Administration and 99,530 in Universities.

Rights, Obligations, Principles And Values

Rights and Obligations

The Civil Service Basic Statute defines rights and obligations as well as a Code of Conduct and ethical principles. Individual rights include the right to privacy, immobility, administrative career and pay, the right to participate in political activities, but observing neutrality in their functions at all times, retirement, etc. and joint rights include the right to meet, association, promotion of collective conflicts, right to strike, etc.

Obligations: The first is to swear loyalty to the King and the Constitution; perform functions with objectivity, integrity, neutrality etc. and follow principles of conduct such as hierarchical obedience, except when the order is clearly illegal, in which case, the supervisor must be informed in order to avoid accountability, or except in cases in which action may be detrimental to citizens and the proper use of public resources, etc.

Career-Based System - Training

Horizontal and vertical career development is possible (promotion without changing position or with changing position), but. at least 3 years should elapse between each promotion.

Training of civil servants revolves around the Administration Academy, which is part of the Ministry for Public Administration, created in 1997. This educational body is responsible for organising courses related to the training of civil servants. Courses in administrative procedures, health and safety, trainings for officials and trainings for Top Menagers are the most important In 2007, the Training Programme for Top Management was redesigned (compulsory 6-day programme) and new Training Programmes for Inspectors and Middle Management were introduced. They are all offered by the Administration Academy.

Remuneration

The Public Sector Wage System Act regulates the stipulation, calculation and payments of salaries and the amount of funds assigned to them. It also defines the procedure for altering the ratios between the wage groups and wage sub-groups in the public sector. In short, the Act sets out the common basis for the public sector wage system, such as the principle of equal pay for positions with comparable functions and rights and the transparency of the wage system and wage incentives.

Positions are evaluated using a common methodology according to the following criteria: level of difficulty of the tasks or entry requirements to the position; level of skills required (professional qualifications, additional skills and experience); competencies and responsibility of the position; physical and mental exertions related to the position; environmental impact of the position.

Following this criteria, each position is classified into one of 65 salary categories, which determines the basic salary. In addition to the basic salary, there are performancerelated bonuses (2 months of the basic salary annually + additional bonus for extra workload agreed between civil servant and superior that shall not exceed 50% of civil servant’s basic salary). On the other hand, the aforementioned Act reduced salary bonuses from 80 to 8 (position, seniority, mentorship, specialisation and academic qualifications, a bonus for bilinguality, disadvantageous working conditions, dangers and special burdens, overtime and night service).

Social Dialogue And System Of Representation

Social dialogue is centralised and negotiations affect all public employees. Collective bargaining is formal and on-going (between 2 and 4 negotiations a year). The Administration is represented by the Governmental Negotiation Group, made up of representatives of all the Ministries, Agencies, some Government Offices and the Association of Municipalities. Employees are represented by many organizations in national negotiations, which normally represent the different branches of the public sector. At times, there is a great deal of diversity within the same branch (there are 6 different trade unions in the healthcare sector). The average unionisation rate is 50%.

Issues dealt with in the social dialogue are essentially the following: working conditions, labour market, modernisation of the social security system, training, reform of the civil service, quality management and public sector wage system. The outcome is not only a collective agreement, but also a proposal. The results of these negotiations are legally binding although there is the possibility of engaging in collective conflict, including the right to strike (although with prior conflict resolution mechanisms and an obligation to provide minimum services). The Economic and Social Council of the Republic of Slovenia (ESC) was established in 1994 as a highest-level body representing the social partners in the country. It was founded by the social partners – employers’ organisations and trade unions – and the Government of the Republic of Slovenia. The ESC usually meets in plenary session, with meetings held either at the request of one of the groups of social partners or at least once a month.

Senior Civil Servants

There is no formally defined SCS status in Slovenia, but there are some special conditions for the SCS group. (Summary Table)

Senior Civil Servants – 2nd Level - are selected through open, public competition. The main role in this procedure has an independent body – the COUNCIL OF OFFICIALS, which has 12 members who are elected or appointed for a term of six years. The Council of officials, determines the requirements to be fulfilled by candidates to a SCS position. On completion of the tests and evaluations carried out by a Competition Commission, those directly responsible for the management position (Prime Minister, Minister and Secretary-General of the Government) make the final selection from a shortlist of candidates, made by Official Council. The Government takes the final appointment decision and senior managers are appointed for a period of 5 years. Their assessment (annual) and management are the responsibility of the immediate superior. There is the possibility of horizontal career development (change of position, but the whole selection procedure must be performed).

Recent Reforms and Prospects

In the year 2009 the Program of reducing administrative barriers by 25% by 2012 and better regulation was adopted.

Among the anti-crisis measures in the public sector there is a plan of the reduction of the number of employees by 1% per year. Besides this a program of several organisation measures and restriction in the HRM was adopted.

Publications

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Main tables

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Database

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