“We’re going to try to get society to look at government officials differently.”

– Apart from salary improvements, how will this agreement affect the work of civil servants in directorates and agencies? And above all, how will it benefit the people?

— This is probably the first time this double question is asked in a collective agreement, since the previous question always stayed in the first part. I will help improve working conditions, but we need to ensure that this leads to better services for our people. How is that achieved? We started the Legislature with the Civil Service Act, which contained novel content that was unlikely to be established in a professional career. In the past, if a high-performing official wanted to move up the ranks, he or she might have had to go to another department or to a position completely unrelated to what he or she had previously done. You’ll be able to do it in the same place you are now. As? Qualify your results with a positive performance review.

-A recurring complaint from board staff was that they were paid less than in other communities. Will the new salary additions bring them in line with the national average?

-With this agreement we place ourselves in the comfortable average of Spain and give them rights that they had not here but in other communities. His professional career had already begun in the fields of health and education. That was not being done in the board’s general affairs department and it was unfair to the staff. This represents a major advance that enables increased agility and efficiency in management.

–Performance evaluations also affect transfers and promotions.

–Even personal satisfaction. It’s a matter of mission and pride to be able to respond, “No, not me,” when someone says, “You officials…” I have a certificate of compliance with obligations and a high production level.

–A system for evaluating work will be created. How does it work?

—We want to ensure that our services actually improve. Performance appraisals assume that good employees are encouraged to have more resources than those who don’t make an effort or are bad employees whose minority status tarnishes the image of the majority. There’s a lot more to this stimulus package than just the economy.

-Who should measure job performance and how was one of the issues that aroused the most doubts within the union. How was it resolved?

-The contract period is 5 years, but because we wanted to allow 2 years to agree on the applicable system, performance evaluation will be conducted during the final 3 years. Obviously, it must be objective, transparent and motivating. So if I had to choose between a stick and a carrot, I would choose the carrot, but I want two rewards for good officials: economic credit and social credit. We will rely on digital systems of government that retain metadata that determines what the activity was. That’s one way. The other is the worker’s own self-evaluation, as opposed to the supervisor’s evaluation. If it doesn’t match, we have metadata to see who made the mistake. This works for a very high percentage of civil servants, but for others it does not, as they perform tasks such as writing reports that require more complex systems that require agreement.

– Another commitment is to reduce the positions of freely appointed officials (PLDs). How do you do it?

—What we propose, and it is not in the spirit of the agreement, is that Andalusia has an anomaly in the allocation of spots. So either it’s PLD or it goes through normal competition. There is a third element that is prevalent in other autonomous communities and administrations but is not present here: certain competition. Officials who have been there for a long time apply for the job and get it because they have been there for a long time, even if it has nothing to do with the profile being sought. To prevent this from happening, I would like to see specific competition promoted that takes into account the uniqueness of each position. For a general advisor or administrative assistant, it doesn’t make sense, but for a service director or manager, you should look for qualifications, training, or experience. In fostering this particular competition, we will reduce the number of open-appointment positions and create a balance between these three institutions.

– The signed agreement also restores so-called social activities and family aid for civil servants that have been suspended since 2012, such as the purchase of eyeglasses. When will it be released?

—Social action is a very important part of this agreement and a demand that is permanently on the agenda. we have a problem. The General State Budget Law ended this right for workers in 2012. Members of the government have said that this decision will be repealed, but it remains the same as it has not been changed. However, there is no new budget for this year, last year, or next year, so nothing has changed. We have requested a report from the Legal Affairs Bureau to recover some of the lines. Once the agreement is finalized, the amount allocated will be between EUR 700,000 and EUR 15 million. In addition to the glasses you mentioned, we also offer childcare support, support for people with disabilities, etc. Priority is set for those with specific problems. We are not going to pay for anyone’s private insurance. That’s not it. We only offer those that are not covered by the Andalusian Parliament’s public services.

–Social peace is sealed in paper by UGT and CCOO. But last Sunday, they demonstrated alongside White Tides, a left-wing opposition party opposed to the military government’s health policy. Are both positions compatible?

– There has been no agreement in the internal affairs, judiciary, and public sector for decades. The final agreement to which we cannot refer is the 2003 agreement, which is derived from the 1996 agreement. This is the only time in the history of the Board that an agreement mobilizing €250 million has been approved by all unions. There was tremendous loyalty from a very cautious union. In the field of internal affairs, the UGT and CCOO cannot be asked to abandon their political approach. In general, it was an enriching process for everyone. We now have five years to achieve that goal.

— Andalusia’s president, Juanma Moreno, is personally involved in the deal. How did you do it?

-absolutely. This agreement could never have been signed without the president’s direct and personal involvement. The demands that the trade unions made of us went far beyond what was in the agreement, and the possibilities that the Ministry of Finance gave us were far less than what had already been completed. If we do well, this agreement will be good for the civil service and for the Andalusian government, because we need to increase productivity. We will create better working conditions and increase the motivation of civil servants. We’re going to give them their rightful place. We will strive to have society see them differently and trust them. There was a key moment last July when we were preparing our financial plan, but this agreement did not fit as we had a very limited budget. Only the president’s participation keeps it that way. he said to me: “This agreement is along the Andalusian route.” Hey, you win, I win, but we can only do that if the people win.