The consultation deals with the possibility of appointing temporary staff over 70 years of age.

Article 12 of Royal Legislative Decree 5/2015, of 30 October, approving the revised text of the Law on the Basic Status of Public Employees (hereinafter, TRLEBEP) refers to contingent personnel as one of the classes of public employees who provide their services in the Administrations in the following terms:

“1. It is contingent personnel who, by virtue of appointment and on a non-permanent basis, perform only functions expressly qualified as trustworthy or special advice, and are remunerated from the budgetary appropriations earmarked for this purpose.

2. The public service laws that are dictated in the development of this Statute will determine the governing bodies of the Public Administrations that may have this type of personnel. The maximum number shall be established by the respective governing bodies. This number and the remuneration conditions will be public.

3. The appointment and termination will be free. The termination will take place, in any case, when the authority to which the trust or advisory function is given takes place.

4. The status of temporary staff may not constitute merit for access to the Civil Service or for internal promotion.

5. The general regime of career officials shall apply to the contingent personnel, as far as is appropriate to the nature of their status.”

It follows from the precept transcribed that both the appointment with the termination of contingent personnel takes place in a manner different from that regulated for official personnel.

In this regard, temporary staff enjoy a special nature, which implies that there are specialties with respect to career civil servants, one of which is that their appointment and termination are based on criteria of political confidence, without the requirements that are established for civil servants being required either.

That is why, despite the fact that other provisions laid down for civil servants, such as the permit system, apply to them, this does not apply to those relating to the birth and termination of the relationship.

Therefore, it is understood that the forced retirement due to age regulated in the TRLEBEP itself for civil servants is not extensible to contingent personnel, so that the age of 70 would not operate as a limit when appointing or dismissing contingent personnel.

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.