It is consulted whether the degree consolidated prior to the loss of official status, motivated by a criminal conviction of special disqualification, is to be retained once the rehabilitation has taken place in the status of official or, conversely, whether it is to be understood that when the status of official is lost, as the personal degree is part of the professional career, it will be lost at the end of that career, which occurs with the loss of the status of official.

Article 63 of the consolidated text of the Law on the Basic Status of Public Employees (TRLEBEP), approved by Royal Legislative Decree 5/2015, of 30 October, provides, among the causes of loss of the status of career civil servant, the “principal or accessory penalty of absolute or special disqualification for public office that has a firm character”.

For its part, Article 68(2) of the TRLEBEP concerning the possibility of rehabilitation of the status of career civil servant states:

“2. The governing bodies of the Public Administrations may grant, on an exceptional basis, the rehabilitation, at the request of the person concerned, of the person who has lost the status of official for having been sentenced to the main or accessory penalty of disqualification, taking into account the circumstances and entity of the crime committed. If, at the end of the period for making the decision, it has not taken place expressly, the request shall be deemed to have been rejected.”

The rehabilitation procedure is provided for in Royal Decree 2669/1998, of 11 December, which approves the procedure to be followed in the field of the rehabilitation of public officials within the framework of the General Administration of the State.

In article 7, concerning the completion of the procedure, it is indicated that in the event that the resolution adopted was a stimulus to the request of the person concerned for rehabilitation, the resolution itself shall assign to the rehabilitated official the temporary performance of a job, task or function corresponding to his Corps or Scale.

For its part, article 8 states that in the event that there is no vacant post available at the time of the resolution, the competent body must provide proof of payroll to the rehabilitated official within one month, following, for the purpose of locating posts, the procedure provided for in article 50.5 of the General Regulations for the Admission of Personnel to the Service of the General Administration of the State and for 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, and complementary provisions thereof, in the field of assigning jobs to removals.

For the assignment of jobs to the rehabilitated official, no mention is made of the degree he or she had recognized before the loss of his or her status. However, the rule itself refers, if it is not possible to assign a post to it, to the procedure for allocating posts for staff members removed from their posts obtained through competitive examinations.

One of the essential elements of this procedure, contained in Article 50.5 of the General Income Regulations, is that this new post that is assigned on a provisional basis is not lower by more than two levels than that of the General Income Regulations. “personal degree” of the official in question.

Therefore, the application of this procedure must take into account the consolidated personal level of the staff member.

In addition, as indicated, the second paragraph of Article 8(1) of Royal Decree 2669/1998, of 11 December, refers to the application of the procedure of Article 50.5 of the General Income Regulations, without any speciality or nuance:

“(…) In the event that there is no vacant post available at the time of the resolution, the competent body must provide proof of payroll to the rehabilitated official within one month, following, for the purpose of locating posts, the procedure provided for in Article 50.5 of the General Regulations for the Admission of Personnel to the Service of the General Administration of the State and for 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, and complementary provisions thereof, in the field of assigning jobs to the removed officials.”

In addition, paragraph 3 of the same Article 8 states:

“3. The period between the loss of official status and the rehabilitation shall not be computable for the purposes of the recognition and calculation of a subsequent pension, whatever its cause. Nor will it be computable for the purposes of promotions, triennials and other passive rights that may correspond according to the Social Security regime that is applicable to the official.”

While the article is clear in determining that the period of time between disqualification and rehabilitation as a staff member cannot be taken into account for any purpose, and in particular cannot be considered for the purposes of “Promotions, Triennials, and Other Passive Rights”, what is a logical consequence for that period; what also allows us to understand the aforementioned precept is that the rights generated in the administrative career are retained until the moment in which the disqualification occurs.

Specifically, they would form part of the administrative career, in addition to the seniority, which is reflected in the triennials and passive rights, the career itself, which is found in the positions held and, specifically, in the consolidated personal degree that this represents and that directly connects with what the article calls “Ascents”.

On the other hand, it must be taken into account that, once rehabilitation is granted as an official, the regulation in Royal Decree 2669/1998, of 11 December, regarding the procedure for the assignment of jobs, is common and applicable to the various cases that may give rise to rehabilitation, including rehabilitation after having been sentenced to the main or incidental penalty of disqualification.

For all these reasons, it is understood that, once the rehabilitation has taken place, the staff member regains the career rights generated up to the moment of his disqualification, among which would be the consolidated personal degree.

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.