Consultation is made on the possibility of recognition of degree by the performance of posts of the corresponding level for three years with interruption

The consultation is about the possibility of recognition of degree by the performance of positions of the corresponding level for three years with interruption. Specifically, it is a question of analysing the degree to be consolidated by a staff member with a consolidated grade 15, on 29 March 2011, who goes on to hold from 3 March 2014 to 5 April 2017 a level 16 post in committee of services, which, a posteriori, returns to provide services in the position he had reserved of level 15, from 7 April 2011 to 30 November 2017, and which on 1 December 2017 acquires a final level 16 post.

When dealing with the consolidation of the personal degree, it must comply with the provisions of article 70 of the General Regulations on the Admission of Personnel to the Service of the General Administration of the State and on the Provision of Jobs and Professional Promotion of Civil Servants of the General Administration of the State, approved by Royal Decree 364/1995, of 10 March.

In particular, the second paragraph of that article states that 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. In addition, the sixth paragraph states that, once the initial grade has been consolidated, the time spent in committee of services will be computable to consolidate the grade corresponding to the position held, provided that the said post or another post of the same or higher level is obtained definitively.

According to the precept transcribed, in order for the time spent in committee of services to be taken into account for the purpose of consolidation of personal degree, the same or another position of equal or higher level must be obtained definitively and without solution of continuity at the end of the commission of services.

As indicated, the only positions that give rise to personal degree consolidation are those that are performed on a definitive basis. In the same sense, the interruption of the consolidation of a personal degree, referred to in Article 70.2 of the Regulation, is only predicable of the cases in which the job is occupied definitively, without this figure being extensible, therefore, to cases of provisional performance such as the commission of services.

From the points indicated by the consultant, the following data are extracted: the staff member, who has a final job level 15 and who would already have consolidated the personal grade 15, goes on in committee of services to perform a job of N 16; ends his commission of services without obtaining that post or another of the same or similar level definitively and therefore, returns to his position of origin N 15.

Therefore, having not obtained the position of N 16, or another of equal or higher level with a definitive character, the time in commission of services cannot be computed for the purpose of consolidation of personal degree.

Likewise, as already indicated, if the positions held in committee of services, per se, do not generate degree consolidation, nor can the “interruption” be applied to this provisional time of performance, which can only be used for the cases in which degree is being consolidated as a result of being in a permanent position.

Therefore, in application of the provisions of Article 70 of the Regulations, and in light of the extremes indicated by the consultant, it is understood that the consolidation of the personal grade 16 will occur when the two years of continuous performance of the post are reached, which in the case raised would occur on November 30, 2019, provided that, as indicated, there is no interruption in its performance.

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.