Civil servants: requesting compatibility for another activity and voluntary transfer

The general rule of Ley 53/1984 (the Spanish Incompatibilities Act) is one single position: any second activity, public or private, requires obtaining authorisation (if public) or recognition (if private) of compatibility before starting it. This affects career and interim civil servants, labour and statutory staff across the entire public sector, and applies even if the second activity is unpaid, according to the criteria of the Office of Conflicts of Interest (OCI).

The application is addressed to the competent body according to your main Administration: the OCI (Ministry for Digital Transformation and Civil Service) if you work in the State Administration, the corresponding regional body in the autonomous communities, the Plenary of the corporation in local entities and the Rector in universities. In the General State Administration (AGE), submission is electronic through Sede Funciona (the Spanish civil service online portal), using the official application form.

If you access a new public position and were already carrying out a private activity, or a second public position eligible for compatibility, you must request it within the first 10 days of the taking up office period: this period is extended until a resolution is issued. Managora prepares the complete application with the activity report so you only have to sign and submit it.

There are vetoed matters: compatibility is not recognised for private activities related to matters in which you intervene, have intervened in the last 2 years or must intervene due to your position (art. 12 Ley 53/1984). Nor if the activity is directly related to matters subject to report, decision, financial aid or control by your department or organisation, even if it does not affect your specific position (art. 11 of the Law and art. 9 of RD 598/1985). Positions in concessionary or contracting companies of the public sector and participating in more than 10% of their capital are also prohibited.

There is a dedication limit: the total dedication to the private activity or activities cannot reach half of the ordinary weekly working hours of the Administration (in the AGE, half of 37 hours and 30 minutes), unless your public activity is provided on a part-time basis (art. 12.2). There is no limit on income or the number of private activities: what is controlled is the dedication and the conflict of interest.

And there is a remuneration limit for the public position: compatibility can only be recognised if your specific supplement (or equivalent concept) does not exceed 30% of your basic remuneration excluding seniority (art. 16.4). If it exceeds this, you can previously request the voluntary reduction of the supplement before your personnel unit to fall within the limit: this is a step that many applicants are unaware of and which prevents denials.

Only in the specific cases of Ley 53/1984: university teaching activity as an associate professor on a part-time basis (arts. 3 and 4), certain health and research activities, cases approved for public interest by the Council of Ministers or the regional government (always under a labour regime, part-time and with a fixed duration) and the positions in article 5. Outside these cases, a second public position is incompatible and forces you to choose one of the two.

Furthermore, the remuneration cap of article 7 applies: the sum of what is received for both positions cannot exceed the remuneration of the main position increased by a percentage ranging from 30% (group A) to 50% (group E), nor that foreseen for the position of Director General.

Following Ley Orgánica 2/2023 (the University System Act), the figure of the associate professor has changed (part-time permanent contract) and several administrations are adapting their incompatibility rules, for example by requiring a new application when the conditions that motivated the initial compatibility are modified. If your authorisation is old, check if it still covers you.

Article 19 of Ley 53/1984 exempts from the incompatibilities regime: the administration of personal or family assets (with the limits of art. 12), directing seminars and courses in official training centres for civil servants or teachers if they are not permanent or habitual and do not exceed 75 hours per year, participating in public examination tribunals, the participation of teaching staff in exams other than the usual ones, literary, artistic, scientific and technical production and creation and their publications (if they do not derive from an employment relationship), occasional participation in the media and occasional attendance at congresses, seminars and conferences.

Be careful with the nuances applied by the OCI: being a capitalist partner of a company is asset administration and does not require compatibility, but being a company director does require it. Publishing a book is exempt, but selling it directly yourself is not. Giving a regular course in a private academy is not occasional teaching: it requires recognition of compatibility as a private activity.

If your case is in a grey area, the prudent thing is to request compatibility: carrying out a subject activity without authorisation is a very serious disciplinary offence (art. 20.3). Managora analyses your case and tells you if you need the application or if your activity is exempt.

The transfer competition is the normal provision procedure (arts. 78 and 79 of the TREBEP and RD 364/1995). Calls are published in the BOE or the corresponding official gazette, the application period is 15 working days and it is awarded by a merit scale: personal grade, work developed, courses, seniority and, in the AGE, conciliation merits (previous destination of a civil servant spouse, care of children under 12 years of age or relatives). In the specific competition there is a second phase with a report or interview. Key rule: you must have been in your definitive destination position for 2 years to compete, except for the specific exceptions in article 41.2 of RD 364/1995 (for example, competing within the same department or Secretariat of State, the suppression of the position, removal or dismissal).

It is advisable not to confuse the competition with mobility due to gender violence or terrorist violence under article 82 of the TREBEP: it is not an exception to the 2 years requirement within the competition, but an autonomous procedure for transfer or assignment to another position, with its own processing and without a merit scale.

The service commission (art. 64 RD 364/1995) is a temporary transfer to a vacant position of urgent and unpostponable provision: it requires meeting the position's requirements and having the conformity or prior report of the originating organisation, lasts a maximum of 1 year extendable for another and the position must be called. It does not consolidate the destination, but it is the usual fast track while the competition arrives.

The exchange is preserved by article 62 of the articulated text of the Ley de Funcionarios Civiles del Estado (State Civil Servants Act) (Decreto 315/1964), in force where it does not oppose subsequent legislation, and several administrations regulate it in their own rules: it requires positions of equal nature and identical form of provision, that the difference in years of service between both civil servants does not exceed 5, a prior report from superiors, that neither has less than 10 years left for compulsory retirement and not having obtained another exchange in the previous 10 years. It becomes void if one voluntarily retires in the following 2 years.

There is also voluntary mobility between Administrations when the call is open to civil servants from other Administrations (art. 84 TREBEP), the redistribution of staff (art. 59 RD 364/1995) and assignment for own health reasons, of the spouse or children, with a report from the official medical service (art. 66 bis RD 364/1995).

In compatibility: starting the activity before having the resolution (a disciplinary offence as well as a cause for cessation in the activity), submitting a generic application without describing the activity, working day and schedule (the OCI asks for a company certificate if employed or a responsible declaration if self-employed), not checking the specific supplement and its 30% limit, and requesting compatibility for an activity connected to the matters of your organisation, which is denied even if it does not affect your specific position. Remember also that compatibility automatically becomes void if you change position, working hours or activity: you must request it again.

In transfers: competing without fulfilling the 2 years in a definitive destination, not proving the merits in the form and period of the call (the scale annexes are eliminatory in practice), forgetting the conformity or prior report of the originating organisation in service commissions and the prior reports of superiors in exchanges, or resigning from the awarded destination, which is irrenounceable unless you obtain another destination by public call before the taking up office period ends.

Managora prepares your compatibility or transfer application adapted to your Administration, with the documentation the body expects to see, and if you are denied we also prepare the administrative appeal. The updated price is on each procedure's page.