The European Union questions the public procurement policy in Spain just when the workforce stabilization process is underway to convert around half a million temporary employees in their different versions into permanent ones: from interim to temporary employees with years of seniority in the Administration . The Court of Justice of the European Union yesterday issued a ruling in which it is considered that “non-permanent permanent” personnel should become permanent.
Isabel Araque, secretary of union action at UGT Services, explained yesterday that the ruling “does not affect interim workers but only the legal figure created by different rulings of the Supreme Court called non-fixed indefinite positions.” In the opinion of UGT and also of CC.OO., the interim ones are left out, since it only focuses on the workforce. The interims are those who temporarily occupy a position of a career civil servant and the labor personnel are reinforcement workers for a specific and time-limited function. The problem is that in both cases there are many who have spent years in this situation.
On the other hand, there are lawyers specialized in defending interim and temporary workers in the Spanish public sector, such as Javier Araúz, who argue that “this ruling necessarily leads to the transformation into permanent employment of all public employees who are victims of abuse.” In his opinion, the ruling rules out previous solutions such as conversion into a non-fixed permanent contract, compensation upon termination of the contract or the call for stabilization processes.
Isabel Araque believes that the sentence does not obligate but rather recommends that the problem be solved. “UGT services have always been involved in all the processes to help workers get out of temporary employment,” she adds.
The different Spanish administrations are carrying out a multitude of processes to reduce temporary employment to 8% of the workforce at the end of the year. The Generalitat, for example, reported this week that 90% of long-term interim workers passed the staff stabilization process and are now civil servants. Those who did not succeed have been compensated with an average of 15,000 euros. According to Araúz, the sentence may cause those interim workers who were left out of the stabilization processes to be reinstated in their positions in application of the sentence.
Sources from the Generalitat said that they are analyzing the sentence and ruled out commenting on it. They said something similar from the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Service. “The model that has been defined by the Ministry for the modernization and transformation of the Administration seeks to reduce the rates of temporary employment and precariousness that exist,” they said from the Ministry without value or interpretation of the sentence.
CC.OO. He noted in a statement that the ruling is “a new setback to the contracting policies carried out by public administrations.” Sources from the Ministry added that of the commitment made “to reduce 300,000 temporary positions before the end of 2024” 75% has already been fulfilled.