Fewer interim teachers, but also fewer young people: the other side of stabilization at the Generalitat

BarcelonaAfter years of calls and stabilization processes, the Catalan public administration has achieved one of the objectives set by law 20/2021, which established reducing temporality in public employment as a prior step to the reform of the administration and the improvement of public services. According to data accessed by ARA, the Generalitat has registered the lowest level of temporality since there are data in the public employment database, the tool that collects the evolution of the Catalan public sector's staff and which has not been available online for months.

In 2004, the first year with available data, temporality was 29%. In 2022 it reached its peak, with 44%, and, according to the latest data, corresponding to 2025, it has fallen to 8%. This represents a reduction of 36 percentage points in just three years. With this figure, Catalonia meets the objective set by the European Union in terms of temporality, while the State still has to adapt to European requirements to reduce temporality and the abuse of interim positions.

The same information collected in the public access to information request to which this newspaper has had access reveals that, despite the imminent wave of retirements in the Catalan public administration –as explained in an interview with ARA Carles Ramió, professor of political science and public administration at Pompeu Fabra University–, the Generalitat continues to fail to guarantee generational replacement of staff. While the age groups of 45 to 59 years and 60 to 64 years have gained more than 5,000 workers compared to 2023, those under 30 years and 30 to 44 years have lost nearly 300. This breaks the growth trend among the younger age groups that had been observed since mid-2016. The Generalitat has not provided detailed data regarding affiliation, departments, or municipalities, as the viewer is undergoing a process of "review and update of its methodology".

From IAC-CATAC, however, they warn that this reduction in temporality has not translated into a renewal of public service. The union spokesperson, Assumpta Barbens, argues that stabilization processes have fulfilled their objective of reducing interim employment, but recalls that most of the positions awarded "already existed" and were temporarily occupied. "All you are doing is stabilizing. There is no real increase in staff," she states. In this regard, she considers that public employment offers in recent years have mainly served to convert temporary positions into permanent ones and not to size the staff according to the new needs of public services.

This, according to the union, is one of the explanations for why the decrease in temporality has not been accompanied by a visible generational handover. Barbens maintains that the administration continues to age because the workers who joined the Generalitat during the early years of the deployment of self-government still occupy a large part of the positions of responsibility. Nevertheless, she anticipates that the situation will change soon: "In three or four years, many people will retire, and then the generational handover can truly begin." She also points out that part of this handover is already happening, but it falls outside official statistics because many young people are hired through temporary programs or contingent positions that are not part of the structural staff. "They are doing the generational handover, but it is not reflected in the data," she summarizes.

Barbens also links the stagnation of staff numbers to the years in which the Generalitat operated without new budgets. As she explains, budgetary limitations and replacement rates have restricted calls to cover retirements and the consolidation of temporary staff, which has not allowed for sustained growth in personnel. For this reason, she criticizes that announcements of new public offers convey an image that, in her opinion, does not correspond to reality. "People think that a public offer means new positions, but they are only temporarily occupied positions that become permanent," she laments.

The union also focuses on the model of access to public service. Barbens assures that they have received complaints from candidates of the latest oppositions to the superior body of the Generalitat because they consider that the tests continue to prioritize memorization over the competencies required for daily work in the administration. He explains that IAC-CATAC will forward these complaints to the School of Public Administration of Catalonia, although he recalls that the bases of the selection processes are the responsibility of the administration and are practically not negotiated with the union organizations.

Furthermore, the union questions policies exclusively aimed at attracting young talent, such as the aid for preparing oppositions aimed at those under 30 years of age. Barbens considers that these measures start from the idea that generational change includes only incorporating new graduates, while leaving interim staff with years of experience or older people seeking to re-enter the labor market in a secondary position. For this reason, IAC-CATAC denounces that this aid has an "ageist" component and demands that public resources also facilitate access for these groups.