Review of the disability during a selective process.

The consultation is about the possibility of disability review during a selective process.

Paragraph 5 of the Resolution of 9 July 2024 of the State Secretariat for the Civil Service, which calls for selective procedures for entry into and access to bodies of the General Administration of the State, and entrusts them to the Permanent Selection Commission, states the following regulation:

“5.1 In each of the specific regulations, the places reserved for the quota of people with disabilities are included.

The Permanent Selection Commission will adopt the appropriate measures to allow applicants with disabilities who have indicated this in the application, to participate in the tests of the selection process on an equal basis with other participants, in accordance with the provisions of Royal Decree 2271/2004, of 3 December, which regulates access to public employment and the provision of jobs for people with disabilities.

5.2 Persons with disabilities equal to or greater than 33 per cent may participate through the general access system or the reserve quota for persons with disabilities (CRD), indicating this on the application form for participation in the selection process.

5.3 Regardless of the system of access by which they are presented, persons who, as a result of a disability equal to or greater than 33%, have special difficulties in carrying out the selective tests, may require in the application form the reasonable adaptations and adjustments of appropriate times and means in the tests of the selective process.

Interested persons must expressly indicate in the participation form the adaptations of time and/or means that they request for each of the exercises of the selective process. In order for the Permanent Selection Commission to be able to assess the origin or non-origin of the requested adaptation, the persons concerned must necessarily attach a copy of the optional technical opinion issued by the technical body qualifying the degree of disability in which the permanent deficiency(s) that gave rise to the recognized degree of disability are reliably accredited, without any other document being valid for this purpose.

To this end, the Permanent Selection Commission will apply the corresponding time adjustments provided for in Order PRE/1822/2006, of 9 June, which establishes general criteria for the adaptation of additional times in the selective processes for access to public employment for people with disabilities. Once the evaluation has been carried out, the Permanent Selection Commission will inform the interested applicants about the time and means granted in their case.

5.4 In the selective processes of free entry, places reserved for people with disabilities who are left unattended may not be accumulated during the general shift. In the selective processes of access by internal promotion, the places not covered in the reserve quota for people with disabilities will be accumulated to those of the general turn of this internal promotion.

5.5 For persons who participate for the quota reserved for persons with disabilities, in the exercises that exceed with a score higher than 50 percent of the maximum qualification, the qualification will be retained in the following immediate call, provided that this is similar in the content of the agenda and the form of qualification, unless the regulations are updated. To make use of this right, they must submit a request to participate in the selective tests. However, if they choose to carry out the exercise in question, the result obtained in the previous immediate call will be null and void.

5.6 In the event that any applicant with a disability who has applied for the reserve quota for disabled persons exceeds the corresponding periods, but does not obtain a place and his/her qualification is higher than that obtained by other applicants of the general access system, he/she will be included by his/her qualification order in the general access system.”

The first thing that must be pointed out is that the accreditation of the handicap is not one of the indispensable ‘general requirements’ of article 56 of the consolidated text of the Law of the Basic Status of the Public Employee, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 5/2015, of 30 October to be able to participate in the selective processes; namely: to have Spanish nationality, functional capacity to perform the tasks, to have reached sixteen years of age and not to exceed the maximum age of forced retirement, not to have been separated from the service or to be disqualified for public jobs or positions, as well as to have the qualification required in the call, in the terms set out there.

In this sense, the accreditation of the handicap is a condition to be able to access the places reserved for the quota of people with disabilities and to have a series of adaptations aimed at compensating the handicap of the applicant.

Therefore, it is not necessary that this condition, or rather the accredited situation, be maintained from the time of submission of applications until the takeover, but it should only be accredited at the time of submission of the application.

In those cases in which there is a review of the disability during the selective process that determines a degree of incapacity lower than that required to participate by the turn of disabled persons, this Center understands that the applicant could continue to carry out the tests for the turn of disabled persons and that, in any case, the actions carried out so far must be respected.

In those cases in which an applicant with a degree of handicap lower than that required to participate for the disabled shift passed a review of the same that resulted in an increase in the degree of handicap equal to or greater than 33%, this Executive Center understands that the necessary adaptations and reasonable adjustments of time and means must be made available to the applicant to ensure their participation on an equal basis with the rest of the applicants, in accordance with the provisions of Royal Decree 2271/2004, of December 3, which regulates access to public employment and the provision of jobs for people with disabilities.

In accordance with article 9 of Royal Decree 2271/2004, of 3 December, regulating access to public employment and the provision of jobs for people with disabilities “Once the selection process has been completed, persons entering the ranks or ranks of officials or categories of work personnel of the General Administration of the State and having been admitted to the ordinary convocation with places reserved for persons with disabilities may request the convening body to alter the order of priority for the choice of places within the territorial scope determined in the convocation, for reasons of personal dependence, difficulties of displacement or other similar, which must be duly accredited. The convening body shall decide on such alteration when it is duly justified, and shall limit itself to making the minimum modification in the order of priority necessary to enable access to the position of the disabled person.”

Taking into account the above, in those cases in which, once the selective process has been overcome, there has been a change in the accredited situation of disability that involves either a decrease in the degree of disability below 33%, or a new qualification of the disability, the only right that could be affected is the right to request the alteration of the order of priority of the places.

Finally, with regard to the classification of handicaps for the purpose of determining the time during which the process is accessed, this Executive Centre understands that this qualification is accredited through the medical opinion issued by the competent bodies of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (current Ministry of Labour and Social Economy) or, where appropriate, the competent autonomous community, in accordance with the provisions of article 2 of Royal Decree 2271/2004.

In those cases in which there is doubt about the correspondence between the accredited disability and the requested turn, the applicant must be required to provide, within the period of correction of errors, the necessary documentation to sufficiently prove his condition.

All of the foregoing is without prejudice to recalling that, according to the regime of competences of this management center, the answers to queries issued by this general directorate are merely informative and, consequently, are not of a binding criterion, nor do they give rise to rights or expectations of law, nor imply any link with the type of procedures to which they refer. Furthermore, in the absence of a mandatory or binding nature, the bodies receiving such replies may, where appropriate, finally take a decision that does not correspond to the opinion contained therein.

The responses to queries contained in this bulletin address the issues raised in the light of the regulations in force at the time of their issuance, so that such responses may be affected by subsequent legislative changes or judicial decisions.