The employment relationship of senior civil servants within the Spanish regional health services: A «special» case

Abstract

Long before what happened for the majority of Spanish senior civil servants since 2007, the subordination of health senior civil servants' recruitment rules to a «special» senior management labour contract inspired in a set of rules applied to senior managers within private sector was possible thanks to the existence of a sectoral law approved in the 90's, afterwards transformed into a mere residual regulation. Nevertheless, the Court admitted its validity through case law beginning in 2001, afterwards consolidated in 2012 and finally ratified in 2014 and 2015, in accordance with a pure «former» definition of top management employment relationship for «public» managers (health senior civil servants) far away from a «substantial» one, which was the traditional judicial interpretation to establish the existence of a «special» employment relationship for «private» managers. Thus, the outcome is that «professionalization» of Health Senior Civil Service in Spain is still a wish because regional governments have continued to select and recruit their health senior civil servants based on the rule of political confidence and loyalty, where both appointment and dismissal are totally free, thanks to the use of state labour regulation dedicated to managers working in private companies. Most regions –if not all of them– have neglected the opportunity to use their regulatory authority to establish their own set of rules for their regional health public servants, despite the existence of a specific legal commandment to do so, dating back to 2003.