This agreement was signed following the meeting of the General Negotiating Bureau of the State Administration, chaired by the Secretary of State for Territorial Policy and Civil Service, Victor Francos, in which the Government and the trade union forces of the AGE are represented.

The trade union representatives who have signed together with the minister the agreement with the general principles of teleworking in the AGE, which will henceforth have to be developed, have been Carlos Martínez Navarrete, president of the national sector of the AGE of the CSIF; Carlos Álvarez, federal secretary of the AGE sector of the FeSP-UGT; Jose Manuel Vera, secretary general SADEZ

The regulation of telework in public administrations starts in 2020, when the State Administration, together with the autonomous communities and the EMFF, at the Sectoral Conference on Public Administration, and also together with the unions, at the General Negotiating Bureau of the Public Administrations, agreed to the reform of the Basic Statute for the Public Employee, beginning with a basic regulation on which each administration could then develop its own regulation.

From now on, a period of consultation and diagnosis with the different ministries is opened to determine the profile of the employees and public employees who will be able to opt for telework and, in the coming months, the Government will adopt a Royal Teleworking Decree in the AGE to also contribute, in the words of the minister, “to provide solutions to areas in demographic decline and to provide coverage of places in certain parts of the territory that are usually vacant,

Agreed general criteria for teleworking at AGE

The public administrations reached an agreement, contained in Royal Decree-Law 29/2020, of 29 September, on urgent measures in the field of telework in the public administrations and of human resources in the National Health System to deal with the health crisis caused by COVID-19, which reforms the recast text of the Basic Statute of the Public Employee (EBEP), incorporating the basic regulations of regulation.

In order to develop such legislation in the AGE, the agreement establishes the following general criteria:

• Telework shall be voluntary and reversible, its use shall be subject to the guarantee of the provision of services and shall apply to jobs likely to be performed by this mode, upon request and authorization.
• Each ministerial department or public body shall carry out a preliminary study of the posts that can be performed by teleworking, with identification of objectives, assessment of compliance, monitoring and evaluation plan.
• Telework implies the maintenance of rights and the staff who provide their services through this modality will have the same duties and rights, both individual and collective, as personnel in face-to-face mode. They shall also be entitled to adequate protection in the field of health and safety at work.
• Access to the provision of services by teleworking shall be made through regular public calls or through the permanent management of applications on an equal footing.
• Applicants must be in active service, criteria such as disability, health, victims of terrorism or gender-based violence may be taken into account, and the authorisation must require prior report from the senior official.
• The Administration shall provide for telework a computer equipment with data card and applications, office tools and cybersecurity necessary for its activity, as well as training.
• The general mode of telework, in weekly computation, will consist of two days in person and three in teleworking mode. The teleworking day shall be that which corresponds to the working schedule, instructions for working hours and hours, and mechanisms for monitoring working hours, documentation and monitoring of management may be available.
• A teleworking modality may be articulated with a provision of services of a face-to-face nature of at least 10% per month, specifically aimed at meeting special organisational circumstances, such as favouring the presence of the State Administration in the territory, in areas in demographic decline, or at providing services in geographical areas that are difficult to cover.