The Government approves a record offer of public employment of more than 44,780 places for this year

Montero "will intensify" the negotiation of civil servants' salaries after the summer and warns: the objective is to combat inflation

MADRID, 24 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Council of Ministers has approved this Tuesday the largest public employment offer (OEP) in history, made up of 44,787 places, of which 34,151 places correspond to the ordinary offer, 12.2% more than in 2021, and 10,636 to the offer of stabilization of interim personnel.

As highlighted by the Minister of Finance and Public Function, María Jesús Montero, in the press conference after the Council of Ministers, this offer is higher than that of 2021 and almost doubles that of 2017, the last one promoted by the Government of Mariano Rajoy .

Montero has assured that since Pedro Sánchez arrived at La Moncloa, more than 143,000 places have been approved in five offers, "more than double what Rajoy agreed to in seven years."

The minister explained that the 34,151 positions that make up the ordinary public employment offer for this year are divided into 25,471 positions for the General State Administration (15,880 free entry and 9,591 internal promotion); 4,992 positions for the National Police and Civil Guard (4,342 free entry and 650 internal promotion), and 1,737 for the Administration of Justice (945 free entry and 792 internal promotion).

For its part, of the more than 10,600 positions that make up the temporary staff stabilization offer, 4,692 positions are for the General State Administration and 5,945 for the Administration of Justice.

Montero explained that 27.5% of the places that make up the 2022 OEP are aimed at social cohesion and services to citizens; 19% to green and sustainable economy and 14.6% to digital transformation. In addition, 20% of the free offer of the AGE will go to STEM profiles (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

The minister has highlighted that the OEP for 2022 is the result of the agreement between the Government and the Civil Service unions and "reflects the will of the Executive" that the Public Administrations have the necessary resources and job stability.

"The Government, within its most intimate DNA, has to strengthen public policies and for that workers and job stability are needed," he stressed.

OFFERS OF STABILIZATION PLACES BEFORE THE END OF THE YEAR

Montero has defended that, since Sánchez is president, the staffing has been progressively increased to "reverse the cuts made by the PP with the imposition of a replacement fee that has prevented the adequate renewal of retiring personnel, and that has given rise to enormous precariousness".

In this sense, he recalled that the General State Budget Law establishes a replacement rate of 110% in general, which rises to 120% for essential services and 125% for the State Security Forces and Bodies.

Montero has affirmed that the objective of the Government is not only to reinforce public employment, but also to provide it with stability. In this sense, he has recalled that the law for the stabilization of employment in Public Administrations contains the commitment that temporary employment in the public sector be below 8%.

This rule also establishes that before June 2022 all Public Administrations must have vacancies offered to stabilize temporary employment.

At this point, Montero has assured that, in the field of the General State Administration, all these places will be published before December of this year and will be awarded before December 31, 2024, and has encouraged the rest of the administrations to do your own.

At the same time, it has promised that all the places that make up the ordinary offer have their calls published before the end of this year.

THE SALARY NEGOTIATION "WILL INTENSIFY" AFTER THE SUMMER

Regarding the negotiation with the unions for the salary increase of civil servants, the minister has insisted that "there is no specific date" to start talking about this issue and has explained that, once the summer is over and the approval of the Budgets for 2023, the negotiations "will be intensified" and "it will be possible to put into value, with more specific data", how the inflation of 2022 will be, since for 2023 the forecasts point to an environment of 2%.

Montero has acknowledged that when the salary increase for this year (2%) was agreed, the increase that inflation has experienced in recent months was not foreseen, but he trusts that this indicator "will be modulated" throughout the second half of the year and a path can be agreed with the unions to raise the salaries of public employees.

In any case, he has made it clear that right now the Government's priority is to combat inflation, so that "any action that the Executive undertakes" is aimed at not adopting measures that could turn an inflation that is now circumstantial into something structural. "We will have to be alert so that all the questions that are made take this caution into account," he remarked.