The consultation deals with the possibility of seconding a civil servant who is in the situation of child care leave or, viewed from another angle, whether that civil servant could apply for re-entry into active service to a different post from the one she has reserved.

For more information, it is meant that there are reasons for reconciling family and working life, as well as the need to cover certain positions that, because of their characteristics, are difficult to cover through transfer contests.

It is understood beforehand that it is necessary to distinguish the commission of services from the re-entry to the active service.

The Committee on Services is a system of temporary employment in which, for reasons of urgency, a post is provided on a temporary basis by an official who meets the requirements for his performance, who is, in turn, reserved for the job he had been performing on a permanent basis.

Therefore, the Committee on Services is not a formula for re-entry into active service, but a form of temporary provision of a job among officials already on active duty in a given position.

The re-entry to the active service, on the other hand, is carried out through the formulas established in the current regulations, without, as indicated, being among them the service commission.

Re-entry into active service in the case of administrative situations in which the right to reserve a job is established - provided that the staff member had come into that situation from a situation in which he had been holding a job or in which he had already been entitled to reserve a job - must take place in that reserved post.

Specifically, and in relation to the situation of child care leave, article 89.4 of the consolidated text of the Basic Status Law for Public Employees (TRLEBEP), approved by Royal Legislative Decree 5/2015, of 30 October states:

“(…) Career officials shall be entitled to a period of leave of absence not exceeding three years in order to take care of each child, whether by nature or by adoption or permanent or pre-adoptive care, starting from the date of birth or, where appropriate, from the judicial or administrative decision.

(…) The job performed will be reserved for at least two years. After this period, said reservation will be made to a position in the same locality and with equal remuneration.”

In other words, a guarantee is provided for the reservation of the job, whether it is the same position he had been occupying, if the re-entry is made in the first two years, or a position in the same locality and of equal remuneration, if the re-entry is made in the third year.

Although this administrative situation, in the interest it protects, is articulated in such a way that the official who receives it does not see his professional situation diminished, what is not possible is that, on the basis of this situation, the systems for the provision of legally foreseen jobs are altered.

In this regard, it may be concluded that the job reservation expressly established by TRLEBEP is non-renounceable, so that re-entry to the service must always take place in the position that, at any time, is established as a reserve post by virtue of the administrative situation of child care leave in which the employee is declared.

Having clarified the above, what would be possible is for the staff member, once she re-enters the active service in the position she has reserved, and provided that all the requirements required by the rule are met, to be able, if necessary, to move on temporarily, in committee of services, to another job; but bearing in mind, as indicated, that, in any case, the re-entry to the active service must take place in the job she has reserved.

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.