Oviedo (EFE).- The new Public Employment Law of the Principality, a regulation that updates the one in force for almost four decades in order to streamline and modernize the services provided to citizens and gain efficiency, has seen the light today amid criticism from the right, but also with the opposition of all the civil service unions, except the UGT.
Among the main novelties that it incorporates, it is proposed that the remuneration of civil servants be more associated with their performance, it eliminates outdated labor categories, such as administrative assistants and creates new ones linked to new technologies or environmental protection, and introduces the figure of the deputy director by appointment of free designation.
This norm also regulates the flexibility and mobility mechanisms, the design of bodies and scales, the provision of jobs, teleworking, the duties and rights of public employees, the sanctions regime, job offers or professional career .
This law, which President Adrián Barbón had set as one of the main government objectives for this legislature, has been approved in the penultimate plenary session to be held in the Asturian parliament before the elections on May 28 with the support of the socialist deputies, IU and Ciudadanos.
Partido Popular, Podemos and the deputy from the Mixed Group have abstained in a vote in which Vox has done so against, as has one of the two deputies from the Foro parliamentary group, since the other has abstained.
Leaving behind a 1985 law
The vice-president and regional administration councilor, Juan Cofiño, has been the main supporter of a regulatory change that leaves behind the 1985 Civil Service Act and which establishes a remuneration system more linked to objectives and performance as a key element.
“It is a much-needed law, essential to outline an administration with a true vocation for public service, and it is an effective and efficient instrument at the service of Asturians, regardless of who is in charge of government tasks”, he pointed out.
Cofiño, who has had an explicit recognition to Ciudadanos for the support provided to approve this law and the Environmental Quality law today, has stressed that “both are an essential part of a public administration reform that still must be completed with more legislative initiatives ”.
After recalling that this reform initially had the majority support of public employees and unions, the vice president has warned those who now disagree that “the general interest and legislative power lies in parliament and not in other forums.”
Cofiño was referring in this way to the fact that the unions CSIF, CCOO, USIPA, USO and CSI have requested that the approval of a text be paralyzed that they consider contributes “confusion and politicizes” the administration.
opposition stance
Precisely, Podemos had reserved for this plenary session an amendment to try to reduce the politicization denounced by the unions and which, according to Ricardo Menéndez Salmón, is reflected in the fact that six of the eight parliamentary groups supported creating the figure of the deputy director and thus compensate for the reduction of freely appointed positions.
From the Forum, Adrián Pumares, has stressed that along the way the initial consensus with some now critical unions has been broken with an opinion that “does not allow us to face modernization or address the great future challenges.”
In order to put an end to bureaucracy, “you have to be more courageous and go a step or two beyond what this law goes”, pointed out the people’s deputy Pablo Álvarez-Pire, for whom the new regulations make the solution to this problem fall only on workers without taking into account that socialist governments are the ones that have created a “regulatory tangle that leads to infinite procedures in many cases.”
The Vox spokeswoman, Sara Álvarez, has called the reform disappointing because “there is no real innovation”, it is limited to introducing minimal improvements” and favors that “appointments through political means will reign” and forming an administration that is “absolutely politicized ”.
For the representative of the Mixed Group, Armando Fernández Bartolomé, the text was precooked in advance and “mediocre results” have been obtained in a matter that required a great political pact.
IU has given “a yes without much enthusiasm, but ultimately a yes” to a law that, according to Ovidio Zapico, has incorporated many of the demands raised by the coalition and that have improved the legal text to achieve an administration that has the best professionals.
From Ciudadanos, Luis Carlos Fanjul, has ensured that improvements were introduced in the presentation to avoid discretion, also in everything that surrounds the figure of the deputy directors, and that finally a text has been achieved that “greatly improves the public function” . EFE