Rui Miguel Gomes / Isabel Aguiar
Divisão Administrativa
rgomes@fm.ul.pt

Of particular relevance within the scope of the programme of Civil Service reforms is the new regime of contractual links, of careers and remunerations of the workers in the civil service, according to the Law nº 12-A/2008, of the 27th of February.

One of the main principles underlying this reform is that of the reduction of the number of existing careers, in order to only foresee special careers in the cases in which the specificities of the content and the functional duties, and also the training or qualification required, clearly justify this, which demands analysis of the special regime careers and of the special bodies existing up to now in order to conclude, or not, the absolute need for their fixing as special careers.

On the other hand, the current profusion of careers in the general regime, with the most diverse designations, and which are in many cases completely misadjusted to the current needs of the Civil Service, clearly shows the need to carry out their setting within the new general careers the overall functional contents of which permit this.

The fusion of these careers into the new general careers, which has been promoted through the transition to those careers of the workers integrated in the careers or bearers of categories identified in this diploma, does not mean, however, the disappearing of the specificities of the existing professions and positions, but only that these specificities will be accepted into the characterisation that will be made of them in the staff plan of each one of the organs or services. As the above-mentioned law foresees, the staff plans will indicate the positions necessary for the development of the activities of the organs and services. The work positions will be characterized according to the attribution, competence or activity in the exercise of which they are set, the careers and categories corresponding to them, and, when absolutely necessary, according to the area of academic or professional training that the occupier of the work position must be the holder.

Thus, the career should become seen as an instrument for integrating the worker into the dynamics of the management of human resources by the organs and public services and in foreseeing and safeguarding their professional path, and not as a juridical translation of their professional activity.

Law nº 121/2008 of the 11th of July, in its turn, aims at bringing about the extinction of the current general or special regime careers, of specific categories and of special bodies whose functional contents and qualification requirements allow their setting within the new general careers, through the transition of the workers currently occupying them into the new careers. In this transition, as results from other legal dispositions of the above-mentioned law, the workers will not suffer any losses in terms of remuneration. The present diploma extinguishes 1,674 careers and categories.

The transitions that are now being brought about through the present decree-law, in keeping with constant precepts of formal law of the Republic, affect those in careers and categories within the scope of the direct and indirect administration of the State, regional and local administrations and in other organs of the State.

The integrations and extinctions that are now being operated and with the rules adopted in Law nº 12-A/2008, of the 27th of February, on the subject of competitions and selection of personnel, aim at greater simplicity and swiftness in the proceedings of personnel management and an increase in the possibilities of workers to move within the Civil Service. The aim is also to suppress some of the aspects that support the often-denounced rigidity in the management of human resources.

However, only after a more careful analysis of the main legal instruments relative to this restructuring of careers will it be possible to know the new reality on the level of human resources in the Civil Service. For this reason we here leave the identification of some of the instruments which, from January 2009 on, will be the source of most of the orientations of the “state workers”.

– DGAEP – Direcção-Geral da Administração e do Emprego Público

– Of. Circular 11/GDG/08 – Regime do Contrato de Trabalho em Funções Públicas

– Portal do Ministério das Finanças e da Administração Pública

– Lei n.º 12-A/2008, de 27 de Fevereiro – LVCR – Lei dos Vínculos Carreiras e Remunerações

– Decreto-Lei n.º 121/2008 de 11 de Julho – Extinção e transição de carreiras

– Lei n.º 59/2008 de 11 de Setembro – RCTFP – Regime do Contrato de Trabalho em Funções Públicas