The unions have managed to get the Government to reform the future Civil Service Law and make the possibility that public workers could lose a promotion due to a negative evaluation of their work performance even more complicated. At no time was the possibility of losing the status of civil servant obtained by opposition raised, but the removal of an internal promotion was. It was the most complicated aspect in negotiating a regulation, which has now been modified. Yes, positive incentives are maintained, such as economic bonuses.
The Council of Ministers has approved this Thursday the Civil Service bill, one of the commitments of the recovery plan to receive the next installment of European funds and a negotiation that had confronted the Ministry of Finance with the representatives of the workers. They did not want the performance exam that is going to be carried out on public employees to lead to the removal of the job position obtained by competition and the Government has decided to clarify this aspect, to reform it, before submitting the rule to the Congress of Deputies.
In the bill, the Government eliminates “mentions of negative effects to use it as an incentive measure and extension of best practices in the Administration.” In other words, the Treasury focuses on the norm as a system of recognition of good results and not of punishment for a negative evaluation.
With this change, the fact that a public employee could lose a promotion becomes a more complicated possibility, practically extreme, as stated in the legal text.
In the norm that comes from the Executive, it can be read that “performance evaluation is the procedure by which professional conduct is annually assessed and the performance or achievement of results of public employees is measured, with the purpose of improving the productivity of the different units and the quality of public services”.
This performance evaluation will be taken into account essentially when collecting bonuses, of a variable nature, in the progression (not regression) in the professional career and in the criteria for the provision of jobs. The results of the examination of each public employee must be recorded in the State Administration Personnel Registry.
In this way, the “perception of a performance complement” will depend on the productivity test (also known as productivity; the Executive has not yet defined amounts and will do so in a future regulation, although in the case of the civil guards, where is current, it can be around 1,000 euros a year) and the “progression of the professional career”.
The majority unions, which came to express their frontal opposition to the bill approved by the council of ministers last December, now applaud the change. UGT has stressed that the bill contemplates a “more social, transparent and participatory approach” and that, therefore, it meets its expectations.
The CC.OO. has positioned itself along the same lines, stating that the text approved today “expressly states that the law must contribute to improving the working conditions of public employees, guarantee the recognition of their rights, as well as such as transversal principles and elements such as equality, transparency in public management and union participation”. “All of this has an impact on the provision of quality public services to the public,” added the power station. CSIF, for its part, has rejected the bill “because it does not guarantee performance evaluation, professional career, 35 hours, or teleworking.”