Deadlines stabilization processes.

Consultation is proposed regarding the application of the legal deadlines provided in Law 20/2021, of December 28, on urgent measures for the reduction of the temporality in public employment, in relation to the stabilization processes. The aforementioned law includes a series of time periods to comply with Spain’s commitment to the European Union, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.

Article 2.2 of Law 20/2021, of December 28, on urgent measures for the reduction of temporality in public employment establishes that:

“2. The job vacancies linking the stabilisation processes referred to in paragraph 1, as well as the new stabilisation process, shall be approved and published in the respective official journals by 1 June 2022 and shall be coordinated by the competent public administrations.

The publication of the calls for the selective processes for the coverage of the places included in the public employment offers must take place before December 31, 2022.

The resolution of these selective processes must be completed by December 31, 2024.”

This article is in force, so the aforementioned provision establishes a time limit that it is not possible to modify or alter from this management center, since it is a legal duty, the non-compliance of which must be, where appropriate, motivated by a cause or reason that justifies it.

Law 20/2021, of December 28, aims to reduce the rate of temporality in all Spanish Public Administrations, configuring the authorization of call for stabilization processes the immediate measure “to remedy the existing high temporality” referred to in the preamble to the Act. In this context, the preamble itself states that the requirement of fixed deadlines is intended to “Avoid delays in these new processes”.

In this sense, although it is based on the link of all Public Administrations to the fulfillment of these deadlines, it is necessary to emphasize that the non-observance of any of them does not cease to enable for the fulfillment of the finalist objective contemplated in the norm.

In this way, the deadline of December 31, included in the law, operates in a double dimension: in terms of the empowerment to convene selective stabilization processes under this, and in terms of the mandate to resolve them. It is necessary to distinguish, by its effects, such two assumptions:

With regard to the convening of stabilization processes, the legally stipulated time limit materially contains a budgetary allotment, by providing a stabilization rate, as stated in the first paragraph of Article 2.1:

“1. In addition to the provisions of articles 19.Uno.6 of Law 3/2017, of June 27, on General State Budgets for the year 2017 and 19.Uno.9 of Law 6/2018, of July 3, on General State Budgets for the year 2018, an additional fee is authorized for the stabilization of temporary employment that will include…”

Consequently, at the end of the deadline for the resolution of the selective processes, on December 31, 2024, there is no budgetary allotment to cover the call for new processes that had not been convened previously.

With regard to the legally established time limit for resolving the processes already convened, this is an administrative time limit, which is binding on the convening Administration and must therefore be met, without prejudice to the fact that, for justified reasons that could prevent their timely completion, it was necessary to conclude the processes once the time limit has expired.

In this sense, the failure to comply with the deadline does not imply that the seats “decline or expire”. As provided by Law 39/2015, of 1 October, on the common administrative procedure of Public Administrations, in its article 48.3: “The performance of administrative actions outside the time established for them will only imply the annulment of the act when imposed by the nature of the term or term”, which would mean that the delay could be remedied.

Given that the objective of Law 20/2021, of December 28, is the resolution of the selective processes duly convened in order to achieve the stabilization of temporary employment and in this way reduce the temporality in all our administrations, such objective goes beyond the legally stipulated date, allowing us to consider that its non-compliance would not affect the essence or nature of the term, and, therefore, it does not lapse merely after the date of end of the established term. Thus, the commitment made in objective 150 of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, which is the cause of legal empowerment, is to the stabilization of at least 300,000 places, so that the commitment does not end up reaching the figure set.

In summary, the importance of the Public Administrations complying with the legally foreseen deadlines, both for the convocation and the resolution of the processes, is highlighted. Notwithstanding the foregoing, in cases in which due to justified reasons it was not possible to comply with the deadline for the resolution of the processes, the Administration could continue with such processes until they were completed, as quickly as possible.

In any case, failure to comply with the deadlines for the resolution of the selective processes may not, in any case, lead to the decline of the aforementioned processes, a consequence that is considered contrary to the legally established objective of reducing the temporality and proceeding to the stabilization of temporary positions that comply with the requirements.

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.