Spain pays 50,000 euros a month to 45 civil servants with no job to go to
The Spanish state has been paying more than 50,000 euros a month to 45 Labour Inspectors with no assigned post since March 2025. The accumulated cost now exceeds 600,000 euros.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
A cohort of 45 Labour Inspectors passed their civil service exam in March 2025 and completed their training in December, but they still have no posting and are each collecting around 1,100 euros a month. The hold-up depends on the closing of a transfer competition, and the cost has already exceeded 600,000 euros.
Spain has a cohort of civil servants who passed their public examination, completed their practical training, and have spent almost two years waiting for someone to tell them where to work. In the meantime, they are being paid. They are **45 inspectors** of the Senior Corps of Labour and Social Security Inspectors, which answers to the ministry led by **Yolanda Díaz**. They passed the selection process on **6 March 2025** and completed their training at the Inspection School in **December** of that same year. Since **September**, they have been receiving trainee civil servants' pay, around **1,100 euros a month** each.
## A monthly bill of more than 50,000 euros with nothing in return
Those paycheques add up to more than **50,000 euros a month**. The total since they started being paid has already surpassed **600,000 euros**, according to the calculations used by those affected themselves. The Ministry has not disputed the figure. It is public money going out every month to people who were selected and trained but have not performed a single day of the duties they were chosen for.
The problem is not that they failed or dropped out. It is that they have no post. Their assignment depends on the prior resolution of a transfer competition among serving inspectors. Until that competition closes, the new-entry posts cannot be filled. This is standard procedure, the Ministry says, a mechanism it describes as offering strong guarantees for civil servants' careers and transfers. The cohort's last contact with the Inspectorate to ask for a timetable was in **June**, and the answer they got was that the procedure "is continuing to be processed as normal".
## Labour points to the Civil Service Ministry, and the Civil Service Ministry does not reply
When asked about the delay, the Ministry of Labour responds that the signing of certain documents falls to the Undersecretary of the **Civil Service Ministry**, a political post in the department led by **Óscar López**. In other words, the ball is passed from one ministry to another with no one giving a date. Those affected speak of "a total absence of official information and of any timetable".
The calling of a general election for **29 November** adds a layer of uncertainty. Not because the process formally depends on the election result, but because the pending steps go through political officials who could change. The inspectors informally work with a scenario in which their actual start date would slip to **March 2027**. If that forecast holds, the accumulated outlay would exceed **one million euros** in pay to staff who have already been selected and trained and are still not working.
## What the cohort is asking for, and what it means for the taxpayer
Those affected are not asking for special treatment. They want to be able to work in the job they passed the exam for and that the Administration is already paying for. Their situation fits a familiar pattern: chained administrative processes where each link waits for the previous one and no one bears the overall cost. The result is recurring spending that produces no public service and a trained workforce ageing on the sidelines.
For the citizen footing the bill, the fair question is how many more cohorts are sitting in that same waiting room. The Labour Inspectorate is an agency with a recognised workload and duties to monitor compliance with labour law. Having 45 trained inspectors with no posting while the transfer competition closes is not a market failure: it is an administrative bottleneck with a monthly invoice.
The figures pointing to a delay until 2027 should be taken as a forecast by those affected, not as an official timetable. On public money and administrative procedures, only the competent authority can give definitive information.
Spain has a cohort of civil servants who passed their public examination, completed their practical training, and have spent almost two years waiting for someone to tell them where to work. In the meantime, they are being paid. They are **45 inspectors** of the Senior Corps of Labour and Social Security Inspectors, which answers to the ministry led by **Yolanda Díaz**. They passed the selection process on **6 March 2025** and completed their training at the Inspection School in **December** of that same year. Since **September**, they have been receiving trainee civil servants' pay, around **1,100 euros a month** each.
## A monthly bill of more than 50,000 euros with nothing in return
Those paycheques add up to more than **50,000 euros a month**. The total since they started being paid has already surpassed **600,000 euros**, according to the calculations used by those affected themselves. The Ministry has not disputed the figure. It is public money going out every month to people who were selected and trained but have not performed a single day of the duties they were chosen for.
The problem is not that they failed or dropped out. It is that they have no post. Their assignment depends on the prior resolution of a transfer competition among serving inspectors. Until that competition closes, the new-entry posts cannot be filled. This is standard procedure, the Ministry says, a mechanism it describes as offering strong guarantees for civil servants' careers and transfers. The cohort's last contact with the Inspectorate to ask for a timetable was in **June**, and the answer they got was that the procedure "is continuing to be processed as normal".
## Labour points to the Civil Service Ministry, and the Civil Service Ministry does not reply
When asked about the delay, the Ministry of Labour responds that the signing of certain documents falls to the Undersecretary of the **Civil Service Ministry**, a political post in the department led by **Óscar López**. In other words, the ball is passed from one ministry to another with no one giving a date. Those affected speak of "a total absence of official information and of any timetable".
The calling of a general election for **29 November** adds a layer of uncertainty. Not because the process formally depends on the election result, but because the pending steps go through political officials who could change. The inspectors informally work with a scenario in which their actual start date would slip to **March 2027**. If that forecast holds, the accumulated outlay would exceed **one million euros** in pay to staff who have already been selected and trained and are still not working.
## What the cohort is asking for, and what it means for the taxpayer
Those affected are not asking for special treatment. They want to be able to work in the job they passed the exam for and that the Administration is already paying for. Their situation fits a familiar pattern: chained administrative processes where each link waits for the previous one and no one bears the overall cost. The result is recurring spending that produces no public service and a trained workforce ageing on the sidelines.
For the citizen footing the bill, the fair question is how many more cohorts are sitting in that same waiting room. The Labour Inspectorate is an agency with a recognised workload and duties to monitor compliance with labour law. Having 45 trained inspectors with no posting while the transfer competition closes is not a market failure: it is an administrative bottleneck with a monthly invoice.
The figures pointing to a delay until 2027 should be taken as a forecast by those affected, not as an official timetable. On public money and administrative procedures, only the competent authority can give definitive information.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (6 replies).
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