Possibility of a staff member being dismissed from a position held on a service commission during a medical leave.

Last update: September 2025

The question raised concerns the possibility of revoking a service commission when the official is on sick leave.

In the first place, the legal framework for implementation must be analysed. In accordance with the fourth final provision of Royal Legislative Decree 5/2015, of 30 October, approving the consolidated text of the Law on the Basic Status of Public Employees, “Until the Civil Service laws are enacted and the development regulations are in force in each Public Administration, the current regulations on the management, planning and management of human resources shall remain in force as long as they do not conflict with the provisions of this Statute.”

Therefore, the provisions of the General Regulations on the Admission of Personnel to the Service of the General State Administration and the Provision of Posts and Professional Promotion of Civil Servants of the State Administration, approved by Royal Decree 364/1995 of 10 March, article 64 of which contains the provisions regarding the figure of the Service Commission, noting in its first paragraph that “When a job becomes vacant, it may be filled, in case of urgent and unpostponable need, on a voluntary basis, with a staff member who meets the requirements for his performance in the list of jobs.”

On the other hand, the third paragraph of Article 64 states that “The aforementioned service commissions shall have a maximum duration of one year extendable by another in the event that the post has not been filled definitively.”

It can be inferred from the above-mentioned regulation that the Service Commission is essentially temporary in nature and is intended to fill a vacant post whose coverage is essential for the functioning of the Unit or Agency concerned.

Taking into account the above, it can be concluded that the commission of services is maintained as long as there is a need that justifies it.

This need of the service commission must be determined by the body or unit that has the vacancy and they will also determine when this need does not exist through the non-renewal of the commission.

It should be noted that the non-renewal of a service commission does not strictly imply either the termination of the position in which it is in committee, or the taking of possession of the place of origin, since these take place for the purpose of the automatic application of the law, without any assessment by the competent body.

All this in order that the official may return to his/her post after the non-renewal of the service commission, and without prejudice to the administrative actions that, where appropriate, are necessary in the budgetary field or for the granting of days for taking office in the post.

Therefore, in the opinion of this Center, the decision not to renew the commission corresponds to the organ, unit or Agency that requested it, not being necessary to wait for reincorporation after a medical leave.

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.