Consolidation scheme promotes stable employment in healthcare

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Legislation adopted in December 2004 provides for competitions to be held during 2005 to fill 37,000 civil servant vacancies in Spain's public healthcare sector. This consolidation exercise should enable many temporary workers in the sector to find open-ended employment, bringing about a major stabilisation of employment in healthcare.

Parliament has approved Royal Decree Law 9/2004 of 3 December 2004, which introduces an 'extraordinary process of consolidation' of employment in the public healthcare health sector in the period up until December 2005. A total of 37,000 places (the largest number of public service vacancies ever offered in a single exercise in Spain) will be offered in 89 calls for applications during the course of 2005, through which staff on temporary contracts will be able to sit competitive examinations to become civil servants. This should bring about a major stabilisation of employment in the healthcare system.

This process will improve the employment conditions of staff who are currently on temporary contracts, or in other cases replace temporary employees with civil servants with permanent jobs. The Directorate-General of Human Resources (Dirección General de Recursos Humanos) at the Ministry of Health has been provided with extra staff and funding to deal with the work that this process will involve.

Up to now, a large number of jobs in public healthcare were filled by temporary workers such as 'relief workers ' (trabajadores inrerinos), who represent 30% of workers in the sector. Though Law 16/2001 of 21 November 2001 aimed to consolidate and stabilise the workforce in 2002 and 2003, the calls for job applications were postponed and the proportion of relief workers (ie hired temporarily to fill vacant permanent posts) continued to rise. The complexity of the process, the administrative procedures and technical problems delayed this process of consolidation. Furthermore, though it stated its support for the process, the former government of the conservative People’s Party (Partido Popular, PP) - replaced in April 2004 by the Socialist Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE) - apparently did not see it as a priority. The process had to be extended - by means of a law accompanying the state budget - into 2003-4 due to the large number of candidates. The new December 2004 Decree Law represents a further extension, but this time with a legal commitment that lays down the period during which the consolidation must be completed.

According to observers, the problem of unstable employment has led to uncertainty and a lack of workforce motivation in public healthcare, with problems arising where temporary employees are assigned to areas of work that require continuity and involvement. This situation, it is claimed, has led to legal insecurity and insufficient legal protection for workers who have been waiting a long time for the opportunity to obtain stable posts.

There has been no opposition to the new consolidation measure. Those involved generally see the initiative as an opportunity to reduce the high rate of temporary employment in the public sector (this sector has contributed substantially to Spain's overall temporary employment rate in recent years - ES0311206F), to improve employment stability, to improve the services provided and to facilitate planning.