Consultation is proposed regarding the application of the legal deadlines provided for 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 relating to 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 before 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 31 December 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 period that it is not possible to modify or alter from this management center, since it is a legal duty, the failure 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 the Spanish Public Administrations, configuring the authorization to call for stabilization processes the immediate measure “to remedy the existing high temporality” as referred to in the preamble to the Act. Within this framework, 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 linking of all the 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 standard.

In this way, the deadline of 31 December, laid down in the law, operates in a twofold dimension: in terms of the authorization to call for selective stabilization processes under the law, and in terms of the mandate to resolve them. It is appropriate to distinguish, by their effects, such two assumptions:

In relation to the call for stabilisation processes, the legally stipulated deadline materially contains a budgetary allotment, by providing for a stabilisation 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 rate is authorized for the stabilization of temporary employment that will include…”

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

In relation to the period legally set for resolving the proceedings already convened, we are dealing with an administrative period, which links the convening Administration and which, consequently, must be met, without prejudice to the fact that, for justified reasons that might prevent its timely completion, it was necessary to conclude the proceedings once the period ended.

In this sense, the failure to comply with the deadline does not imply that the places “decline or expire”. As provided by Law 39/2015, of 1 October, on the common administrative procedure of the 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 deadline”, 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 date stipulated legally, allowing us to consider that its non-compliance would not affect the essence or nature of the term, and, therefore, it does not fall merely after the date of termination 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. Without prejudice to the above, in cases in which for 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, at the greatest speed.

In any case, failure to comply with the deadlines for the resolution of the selective processes cannot, under any circumstances, lead to the decline of the aforementioned processes, which is a consequence that is considered contrary to the legally established objective of reducing temporality and proceeding to the stabilization of temporary places that comply with the requirements.

All of the above is without prejudice to remember 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, do not have the character of a binding criterion, nor do they give rise to rights or expectations of law, nor do they imply any link with the type of procedures to which they refer. In addition, since they are not mandatory or binding, the bodies to which such replies are addressed may, where appropriate, finally take a decision that does not correspond to the opinion contained therein.

The answers to queries contained in this bulletin deal with the issues raised in the light of the regulations in force at the time of their issuance, so that these answers may be affected by subsequent legislative changes or judicial resolutions.