Civil service employment - which sectors employ civil servants?

There is no European-wide agreement as to the sectoral employment of public employees or the employment of civil servants. The allocation of functions between the different public employment groups is partly an accident of history and has altered over time. Civil service jobs range from street sweeping to the exploration of outer space, where both persons could be employed as a civil servant or as a public employee with an employment contract. In many cases, the selected employment status lacks clear logic. Things become more diverse when looking at the employment in the wider public sector or semi-public sector, e.g., prisons,

nuclear power stations, inspectorates, risk prevention etc. A comparative study by Demmke (2006)¹³³ revealed that the EU Member States employ civil servants in very different sectors.

In addition, they even employ, both, civil servants and private employees in the same sectors or positions. Logic behind this is difficult to find, thus, the Member States do not only differ with regard to the employment of different categories of public employees in different sectors.

Still, most of the Member States apply sectoral limitations to the employment of public employees and civil servants. Employment regulation in the civil service, as in many other European countries, retained some distinguishing features that set it apart from the two other public sector groups, although these differences have declined over time. In the United Kingdom, strictly speaking, civil servants are only those working for the ministries or their executive agencies. They represent about 9% of public sector employees. Until very recently, the rules governing their status were based on tradition and there was no actual civil service code. The working conditions in the civil service and the rules regarding human resources management were codified in the Civil Service Management Code in 1996. Most of the public sector employees or “public servants” are employed on a contractual basis and are subject to general labour code legislation. Employment conditions vary considerably between public employers

Although some general patterns exist, all other Member States employ public employees and/or civil servants in many different sectors, functions, jobs, areas etc. According to the World Bank, the civil service legislation always covers the permanent employees of civilian central government and, in some settings, subnational government. Often teachers, health professionals, and the police are excluded.

• Employment in the education sector is also generally regulated by specific legislation.

• The health sector workforce, which usually comprises a significant element within the total public sector workforce, may be either directly employed by the public sector health system, or work in public-funded agencies or organisations (e.g., social insurance funded). In many countries healthcare will also be delivered by organisations in the private sector and by voluntary organisations.

• Subnational government employment often represents a substantial portion of the total public sector workforce – frequently over 50% in the federal counties. However, subnational government employment is considered a separate, legally defined civil service in many countries. In most of the continental European countries, military and law enforcement personnel (e.g., police, customs, etc.) have their own specific legislation as the basis for employment. However, more often than not, the police are considered civil servants.

133 Christoph Demmke, Are Civil Servants Different Because They Are Civil Servants? EIPA, Maastricht, 2006.

• Employees of state owned enterprises may be subject to specific, but different legislation, or may be subject to the general labour law that governs employment contracts in the private sector”¹³⁴.

In fact, civil service employment shows some common (but changing employment patterns).

Mostly, civil servants in the central ministries, police staff, judges, diplomats and soldiers have a specific, yet often also a special status. For example, Art 86 of the Austrian Constitution Act (Bundes-Verfassungsgesetz) foresees that judges have to be appointed by the Federal President; the very same goes for public prosecutors. Thus, all judges and public prosecutors are civil servants.

In almost half of all EU Member States, teachers, professors and health professionals are excluded from having a specific status. However, employment in the education sector is also regulated by specific legislation in some Member States. The health sector workforce, which usually comprises a significant element within the total public sector workforce, may be employed directly by the public sector health system or work in public-funded agencies or organisations, e.g., social insurance funded. In many countries healthcare is also provided by organisations in the private sector and by voluntary organisations. In Sweden, only some higher judges are hired under public law (and have life-time tenure).

In Italy, the civil service reform of February 1993 instituted contract-based relations between public employees and the State. As a consequence, civil servants are governed by private labour laws, while some categories of personnel (magistrates, State advocates, university professors, armed forces and police force, diplomats and prefects) have not been privatised in order to guarantee their independence. These categories are under public law. Thus, Italy is a somewhat special case.

Table 25. Do these administrative sectors belong to central civil service or do they have their own civil service systems?

(Frequencies in parenthesis)

Administrative sector

Central civil service

Specific civil service

Not part of

civil service Total

Central government 100 (27) 0 (0) 0 (0) 100 (27)

Government agencies 85 (22) 0 (0) 15 (4) 100 (26)

Diplomatic service 59 (16) 41 (11) 0 (0) 100 (27)

Judiciary 48 (13) 33 (9) 19 (5) 100 (27)

Police 41 (11) 44 (12) 15 (4) 100 (27)

Military 37 (10) 37 (10) 26 (7) 100 (27)

134 See http://web.worldbank.org, op cit.

Education 19 (5) 30 (8) 52 (14) 100 (27)

University 19 (5) 26 (7) 56 (15) 100 (27)

Hospitals 19 (5) 26 (7) 56 (15) 100 (27)

Source: Christoph Demmke/Timo Moilanen, Civil Services in the EU of 27, op cit.

Subnational government employment often represents a substantial portion of the total public sector workforce – frequently over 50% in decentralised or federal countries, but also in Scandinavian countries. In some Member States, subnational government employment is often not a part of the civil service (Poland, Ireland) or is considered a separate, legally defined civil service. For example, in the Scandinavian countries the term civil service is usually defined as the state level. Local authorities and municipalities in these countries are distinct from the central state level. However, (in Finland and Denmark) they also employ local civil servants. For example, Finland employs more than 80% of all public employees as civil servants at the state level but only approx. 40% of all public employees on the local level have a civil service status.

Despite all the existing differences, some trends can be identified. As it seems, the Member States decide to change the employment status in a number of sectors. Overall, the employment of civil servants is more and more restricted to core-areas and core-sectors such as the central governmental level, justice, diplomacy etc. For example, in Poland, civil servants can already be considered the core of the civil service corps. In other countries, for instance, Denmark decided to restrict civil service employment to the police force and in the armed forces. There are currently considerations of how to obtain a further drop in the proportion of civil servants, as employment on collective agreement terms are considered more flexible. In Estonia, the number of people with public law status has decreased considerably within last years and it is planned to reduce it further by 20%. Parallel to this development, there is less recruitment of teachers and academics as civil servants. Here, a good example is Portugal where – since 2008 – the classical appointment pattern for civil servants (with a higher job security and specific career development patterns (promotions) was restricted only to those employees who deal with “sovereign and authority powers”. The law in force explicitly identifies them: generic and specific missions of the armed forces (...);

external representation of the State; security intelligence service; criminal investigation;

public security (National Republican Guard, Public Security Police and prison warders) and inspection” (official answer of Portugal to this study).

This trend in the field of civil service employment is surprisingly similar to the discussions at the EU level as regards the interpretation of Article 45 (4) of TFEU. In a comparative study for the European Commission, Ziller¹³⁵ shows how the Court of Justice and the European Commission have narrowed down the applicability of Article 45 (4) of TFEU to ever more restricted areas and sectors. Still, the situation at the national level is very different and ranges

135 Jacques Ziller, Free Movement of European Union Citizens and Employment in the Public Sector, Report for the European Commission, Brussels 2010.

from very open to national attempts to restrict the access to the national public employment market for other EU nationals as much as possible. The same is true as regards civil service employment at the national level. The trend is towards a number of core sectors which may be reserved to civil servants. However, the trend is very different and ranges from a uniform public employment sector to cases where a high number of sectors are still reserved for civil servants.

8.3 The reserve of certain functions to civil servants – a new blurring of