The question raised concerns the calculation of the length of stay in the situation of special services for the recognition of personal qualifications, making special mention of the occupation of posts of contingent personnel.

Thus, in the first place, it is necessary to analyze the legal framework of application, which is formed by the consolidated text of the Law of the Basic Statute of the Public Employee, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 5/2015, of 30 October (TRLEBEP from now on), Law 30/1984, of 2 August, on Measures for the Reform of the Public Service (Law 30/84 from now on) and the General Regulation of Entry of Personnel to the Service of the General Administration of the State and Provision of Jobs and Professional Promotion of the Civil Officials of the State, approved by March 1995.

In view of the above, in order to resolve the question raised, in addition to referring to the general rule contained in the applicable regulations, it is appropriate to make a particular mention of the cases of occupation of jobs of contingent personnel.

(a) General rule

The fourth final provision TRLEBEP states in its number 3 that up to “the Civil Service Laws and the regulations implementing them shall remain in force in each Civil Service the regulations in force on the management, planning and management of human resources as long as they do not conflict with the provisions of this Statute.”. In accordance with the aforementioned Provision, in the field of the General Administration of the State, in the field of internal promotion, consolidation of personal degree and provision of jobs, Law 30/1984 and the RGI continue in force.

In this context, article 21.1(d) of Act No. 30/1984 provides as follows:

“The personal degree is acquired by the performance of one or more posts at the corresponding level for two continuous years or three with interruption. If a staff member ' s level changes during the time he or she is in a post, the performance time shall be counted as the highest level at which the post has been classified.

Notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding paragraph, staff members who obtain a higher level of employment in more than two levels corresponding to their personal level shall consolidate every two years of continuous service the higher level in two levels to which they hold, without in any case being able to exceed that corresponding to the level of the position held.”

With regard to the consolidation of the initial personal degree, Article 70.3 RGI provides that the “officials shall necessarily consolidate as an initial personal grade the level of the post awarded after the selective process has been passed, unless they voluntarily move on to a lower level post, in which case they shall consolidate the post corresponding to the latter”.

In turn, the Regulation in its Article 70.9 refers to the computation of the time provided in special services for degree consolidation purposes in the following terms:

“9. The length of stay in the situation of special services shall be calculated, for the purpose of acquiring the personal degree, as provided in the last position held in the situation of active service or in which during the time of stay in that situation it had been obtained by means of a competitive examination.”

Therefore, in general, the length of time spent in the special service situation will be calculated for the purpose of the acquisition of the personal degree, whether or not it is the initial one, as provided in the last position held in the active service situation or in which during the time spent in that situation it was obtained by competitive examination, although the recognition of that degree will take place in an effective manner once the staff member reenters the active service in the corresponding position.

b) Consolidation of degree in a possible position

As has been mentioned, the guarantee contained in Article 70.9 RGI in relation to the calculation of the time of stay in the situation of special services refers to the last position held in the situation of active service (or in which during the time of stay in said situation it would have been obtained by contest). Therefore, in the event that the staff member occupies a temporary staff position in special service situations, this is the criterion to be applied.

This position is different in the situation of active service, in which case the time spent in that position computes it to consolidate that degree in accordance with the general rules of degree consolidation.

In order to exemplify the above, the following consulted assumptions are collected:

Assumption 1: The possibility of consolidating the personal grade 30 for performing a Level 30 position as contingent personnel from the situation of special services is consulted. In this case, the staff member, before moving on to the status of special services as temporary staff, was assigned a level 28 post (already consolidated at this level), held the level 30 post for more than two years and temporarily re-entered a level 30 post which he later acquires on a permanent basis.

According to what has already been said, the guarantee contained in Article 70.9 RGI refers to the last position held in the active service situation, in this case in the level 28 position.

Therefore, the length of time spent in the administrative situation of special services will be computed, for the purpose of consolidating the personal level, as the time spent in the last post that the staff member would have performed definitively in the situation of active service; that is, in the post at level 28. Therefore, since it already has this consolidated grade, time in special services cannot be used to recognize any grade.

It would have been different if he had provided the post of temporary staff in the situation of active service, in which case the time provided in the post at level 30 had he been assigned to consolidate that grade, in accordance with the general rules of grade consolidation.

Scenario 2: The possibility of consolidating the personal grade 30 for performance in special services of an N30 job in a City Hall by official of the Superior Scale of the National Police Corps is consulted. In this case, the person concerned held a Level 27 position at the time of the transition to the special services situation.

In the specific case of the consultation, in the light of the provisions of art. 70.9 RGI, the time spent in a situation of special services would serve to consolidate that level 27, if at the time of change of situation the interested party had not previously consolidated it. That is, for the case that arises, the time spent in the City Council would only be valid to consolidate the degree corresponding to the reserve position.

A different issue are the “ad intra” effects (which it may have in its own sphere) of the recognition of the degree as possible personnel that the City Council may carry out in application of its regulations and in use of its power of self-organization.

In conclusion of everything indicated above:

The length of time spent in the special service situation shall be calculated for the purpose of the acquisition of the personal grade, whether or not the initial grade, as performed in the last position performed in the active service situation or in which during the time spent in that situation it was obtained by competitive examination, although the recognition of that grade shall take place in an effective manner once the staff member reenters the active service in the corresponding position.

With regard to the degree to be consolidated by a staff member occupying a post of temporary staff, the criterion is that he can only consolidate the degree of the post he actually performs if he does so in the situation of active service. If it does so in the situation of special services, the time has to refer to that of the last position held in active service.

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.