Appropriateness of granting an examination permit to a civil servant to attend a voluntary exercise and merit in a selective process for internal promotion.

The consultation is about the possibility of granting a permit per exam to attend the exercises framed in a selective process through internal promotion.

Article 48 of Royal Legislative Decree 5/2015, of 30 October, approving the consolidated text of the Law on the Basic Status of Public Employees, hereinafter TRLEBEP, provides in its letter d) that public officials will have a Permission to take final exams and other final aptitude tests, during the days of their celebration.

This provision is developed in the Resolution of 14 April 2026 of the State Secretariat for the Civil Service, which provides instructions on the working hours and hours of staff in the service of the General Administration of the State and its public bodies. Paragraph 10.2 of the Resolution provides that in order to facilitate training and professional development, the following shall be granted:

“a) Paid leave, for the necessary and sufficient time, to attend final examinations and other definitive tests of aptitude for obtaining an academic or professional qualification recognized during the days of its celebration.”

The criteria for the interpretation of this permit have been established as a legal doctrine by the Judgment of 28 June 1996 of the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court, issued in the appeal for cassation in the interest of Law No. 6059/94 and which, in summary, are the following:

(a) In the event that the examination and other evidence referred to in the provision are to be held in the same place where the official ' s place of work is located, outside the working day and without this being affected by the circumstances of the examination, no permit may be granted.

(b) In the event that the examinations and other final aptitude tests must take place in the same locality where the staff member ' s place of work is located and within his working day, the permit must be granted for the time necessary to take part in the examination, on the understanding that the term " indispensable time " does not necessarily imply the granting of the permit for the whole of the day on which the examinations are held, and it may be assumed that the permit is granted only for certain hours of the working day, provided that the time allowed to take part in the examination and return in time to the unit where the service is provided.

However, it must be taken into account that the permit must be granted for the minimum time, but also sufficient for the standard to meet its objective of making it possible to compete for final examinations and tests of aptitude without there being any type of element that could condition or prevent the realization of the same.

Thus, in those cases in which it is not appropriate to grant permission for the performance of examinations and other definitive aptitude tests during the entire working day of the official, the body competent to grant them must, in any case, consider that the permit granted guarantees compliance with the legal property protected by the rule.

On the other hand, although in accordance with the Resolution of 14 April 2026, “Final exams and other final aptitude tests” Those aimed at obtaining a recognized academic or official degree are understood, it must be taken into account that article 18.4 of the TRLEBEP establishes that “the Public Administrations will adopt measures that encourage the participation of their staff in the selective processes of internal promotion and for the progression in the professional career.” Among these measures would be the authorization to carry out internal promotion examinations, for the duration of the same, without the need to request a day of own affairs.

In any case, the particular circumstances in each case must be properly weighed by the competent body for the granting or refusal of the permiso.Sin prejudice to the above, it is considered that the permit recognized in article 48(d) of the TRLEBEP must be applicable to the performance of a voluntary exercise and merit in a selective process by internal promotion, and includes the time of celebration of the examination and the time necessary for the corresponding displacement.

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.