Officials rebel against the new performance test

Officials of the General State Administration (AGE) are flatly opposed to the mechanism that the Government has designed to evaluate their performance and, by extension, distribute salary bonuses by objectives or, in case of not being productive, to be able to revoke a promotion.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
26 December 2022 Monday 08:36
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Officials rebel against the new performance test

Officials of the General State Administration (AGE) are flatly opposed to the mechanism that the Government has designed to evaluate their performance and, by extension, distribute salary bonuses by objectives or, in case of not being productive, to be able to revoke a promotion. At no time does the Ministry of Finance and Public Function propose the expulsion of the worker from the public function, but a removal from the job position obtained by competition. The unions of the administration are going to fight until the end of the legislature and are already working together to present their proposals with the aim of modifying the bill that was approved by the council of ministers last week.

The conflicting point of the norm in the making is article 81 and following of the first approach that the Executive has put on the table. The "performance evaluation" seeks to "improve the productivity of the different units" of officials and "the quality of public services." It is "mandatory" for all active staff of the central administration. The Government proposes an assessment of the public employee and that the "perception of a performance complement" depends on this examination (also known as productivity; the Executive has not yet defined amounts and will do so in a future regulation, although in the case of civil guards, where it is already in force, it can be around 1,000 euros a year), the "progression of the professional career" and, even, the non-continuity in the job.

What the Treasury is actually suggesting is that negative results in this "performance evaluation" may lead to "non-assessment of the merit of experience" during the selection processes. Continuous negative conclusions, year after year, would open up the possibility of losing the job position obtained by the public employee through a competitive promotion. The position obtained in the opposition will always be respected and the status of civil servant will never be lost, explain sources from the ministry directed by María Jesús Montero.

The representatives of the officials are preparing to negotiate with the Treasury how to modify this central part of the future law around Christmas. “We agree with setting incentives, but these cannot be detrimental to the working and salary conditions” of public employees, defends Miriam Pinillos, secretary of public policies for Comisiones Obreras (CCOO). For the union led by Unai Sordo, productivity must be configured "as an incentive and not as a punishment", through "objective and not personal criteria".

UGT agrees with a negative assessment of the public function bill. "It generates mistrust in us, because the performance evaluation should be done with greater transparency," says Carlos Álvarez, general secretary of public services of the general administration. "We are not going to oppose if there is a lazy person in a certain unit, but we defend the existence of objectivity" when defining its productivity.

The union headed by Pepe Álvarez also puts its foot on the wall and recalls that the removal of a promotion already appears in the Basic Statute of Public Employees, although the norm has never been developed by any Government. Now the Coalition Executive must specify who should carry out the evaluation and the workers will seek that the decision always go through the personnel meetings, where you are present, in order to defend the rights of the workers affected by a negative assessment.

The unions seek, therefore, that the evaluation of the productivity of civil servants be discussed at joint tables, with representation from the administration and also from the representatives of the workers. Both the CCOO and the UGT propose that said assessment go "from the collective to the personal", first evaluating "the situation of an entire unit or center" to then focus control on the official. "Right now we cannot lose other rights achieved through collective bargaining," concludes Pinillos, from Commissions.

"We cannot admit a vertical scheme, but a global, reciprocal evaluation must be generated, by units and offices," the most representative unions jointly defend in an internal document distributed to their affiliates last week. They also propose that the door be opened to resolutions through administrative channels in the face of decisions that imply the removal of a promotion, so that officials do not have to resort to judicial proceedings.

With regard to economic productivity bonuses, the unions propose that as it is a universal evaluation system for the entire general administration of the State, the aforementioned remuneration supplement is also universal. In other words, that the entire unit receives the same amount, regardless of the level in the public employee ladder.

The intention of the Government is to have the civil service law in force before the end of the legislature.