Spain ends mandatory appointments, straining public servants

End of mandatory appointments strains Spanish administration

Pedro Sánchez promised a new model of in-person service "with flexible hours and no mandatory appointments" during the investiture debate on November 15. The announcement passed almost unnoticed amid the noise of a contentious session, but this Thursday, Minister for Digital Transformation and Civil Service José Luis Escrivá made it concrete: a draft law to amend Article 14 of the Common Administrative Procedure Act, to be applied "as soon as possible." Reaction from agencies with heavy workloads was immediate. In Social Security and SEPE (Public Employment Service), they consider it directly unfeasible; in the Tax Agency (AEAT), there is talk of discomfort and a climate of rebellion among Management staff.

What changes with the end of mandatory appointments

The rule now sought to be repealed was imposed by the Executive itself during the pandemic. Since then, prior appointments became the mandatory filter for accessing many offices of the General State Administration. Escrivá argues that "interacting with the Administration does not require a mandatory appointment," adding that last year there were more than one million consultations without an appointment. The regulatory change will be completed by a redesign of the central Government website, which will organize information by life events instead of by departments.

The problem is not the principle, but the arithmetic. Unions warn that staffing levels are already strained after pandemic efforts—new benefits such as the Minimum Vital Income, Kit Digital, young cultural bonus, or the €200 check—and the deployment of European funds. CSIF summarizes it bluntly: "unfeasible, there are not enough hands." Their estimate is that the workforce would need to increase by 30%, including interim staff, something they believe "there is no time to absorb."

AEAT warns: appointments moderate attendance

In the Tax Agency, the diagnosis is similar, though more nuanced. Official sources from the agency underline the importance of appointments to moderate attendance and avoid commenting until there is legal text. Other informed sources describe a climate of "rebellion among Management civil servants," convinced that there are not enough hands for the shifts that would have to be implemented. The paradox is that Hacienda maintains the obligation to file income tax returns electronically since 2018, a discrimination that the Supreme Court deemed illegal in a ruling on July 20, but which the anti-crisis royal decree-law published in the BOE on December 28 continues to maintain.

The salary dispute intersecting with appointments

The announcement comes at a delicate moment. The Government has not yet articulated this year's pay rise for civil servants, while having raised pensions and the SMI (Minimum Wage). The additional 0.5% rise linked to GDP will be paid shortly, but the Executive wants to link the 2024 base increase to the Budgets, accounts that remained in doubt after Junts temporarily blocked the amnesty law. CCOO argues that the pay rise "does not have to be included in the Budgets" and recalls that civil servant salaries were raised without budgets in 2019 and 2020. CSIF and UGT agree.

How many civil servants needed to serve without appointments?

The minister wants to increase the workforce of the General State Administration by nearly 70,000 people to reach the 590,000 who worked there in 2011. The OECD recommends that public employees make up 18% of total employment, which would imply 400,000 new positions. The complete detail of these calculations, broken down by agency, shows the real magnitude of the problem: it is not just about hiring, but the predicted pace of retirements forces a rush to avoid losing personnel.

The gap between narrative and counter service

On the opposite side, part of the analysis holds that the problem is not staffing but productivity. It is argued that the Administration has been digitized for over a decade and yet the number of public employees remains at highs. The comparison with 1975—when everything was done by hand and there was one-sixth of public employees—appears again and again to ask what has been done with technology. The union response is that digitalization does not eliminate work: it transfers it. Processing a foreign pension, for example, requires translating documentation and reviewing databases that do not always match.

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Can service be provided without appointments with current staffing levels? The official answer does not yet exist. The regulation is still being written, the Budgets are pending approval, and retirements are coming. Meanwhile, citizens continue to queue—physically or by phone—at the same counter as always.