The Ministry of Public Service and the unions CSIF, UGT and CCOO held a new meeting on Tuesday in the framework of negotiations to reach a new agreement, focused on this occasion on employment. At the meeting, the two parties addressed “simplifying and improving selection processes, promoting internal promotion and professional development, personnel planning, attention to citizens and public services, equality and non-discrimination, among others,” as indicated by the administration headed by Oscar Lopez.
One of the main points of the meeting was the replacement rate. This is the percentage that limits the offer of places in public employment offers based on the number of dismissals that will occur and is updated in each state budget law. The government promised to abolish it by 2025, but the impossibility of approving new accounts means maintaining it. CSIF sources say the department is now “ready to review it, with an alternative staff planning mechanism.” They point out that this mechanism will gradually replace the “current replacement rate.”
Abolishing the replacement rate is a requirement for all union organizations. “All three of us said that it must be eliminated,” UGT Servicios Públicos Secretary General Isabel Araque said at the end of the meeting, and also noted interest in “accelerating both newly created recruitment and internal promotion within the public administrations themselves.” The latter is also a long-standing claim of civil servants, as it allows them to move up the organizational structure of the administration. CSIF sources state that selection processes should “in no case” last longer than one year.
These voices indicate that the Ministry has addressed some of their complaints, such as upgrading citizen service offices, procedures related to equality, non-discrimination and occupational health, and the establishment of the Public Employment Observatory, which allows for analysis and proposal of measures related to public employment. Specifically, Arak highlighted that “there is a very strong commitment” to improvements in risk prevention and occupational health.
However, this is the first meeting in which staffing issues are addressed in negotiations on the new framework, which should be further developed over the coming weeks. It is also the case to wait for the salary increase, proposed by the government several years ago, until 2028, with a completely differentiated 2025 slope and without loss of purchasing power.
About The Author
