2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THREE - Executive (§§ 1 — 9311) › Chapter 51B - Human Resources Administration System (§§ 1461 — 1468p) › Subchapter IV - Merit Principle (§§ 1462 — 1462h) › § 1462b - Recruitment and selection

Agencies shall offer the opportunity of competing in their recruitment and selection procedures, to any qualified person, in attention to aspects such as: academic, professional, and work achievements, knowledge, capability, abilities, skills, work ethics; and without discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, birth, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, social origin or condition, political or religious beliefs, veteran status, or physical or mental disability.
(1) Any candidate interested in entering into the public service shall meet the following general conditions:
(a) Be a United States citizen or a foreigner legally authorized to work pursuant to applicable legislation.
(b) Be physically and mentally capable of performing the essential functions of the job.
(c) Comply with the applicable provisions of the Internal Revenue Code, as amended, §§ 8006 et seq. of Title 13, concerning the filing of income tax returns for four (4) years preceding the job application.
(d) Not be guilty of dishonorable conduct.
(e) Not to have been convicted of a felony or of any crime that implies moral turpitude.
(f) Not to make illegal use of controlled substances.
(g) Not to be an addict to the habitual and excessive use of alcoholic beverages.
(h) Not to have been removed from public service or convicted of the felonies or misdemeanors listed in subsection (3) of § 1462g of this title within the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the federal jurisdiction or the jurisdiction of any of the states of the United States of America.
Conditions in clauses (d)—(h) of this subsection shall not apply when the candidate has been habilitated to hold a job in the public service.
(2) Any person that is to hold a job in the public service, whether by original appointment or by any other personnel action, shall meet the minimum education and experience requirements established for the corresponding job class.
(3) The following shall be the general provisions that shall govern employee recruitment and selection for regular job positions within the career service:
(a) Recruitment shall be carried out through a procedure whereby aspirants compete under equal conditions.
(b) Summons shall include the recruitment norms for each job class, which shall be geared toward attracting the best available resources to the public service. Summons shall include without being limited to the title of the job class, nature of the job, salary, the requirements to have approved a test or tests, when such is the case, and education and/or experience requirements that the aspirants to the job must have at the very least. Minimum education and/or experience requirements shall, in turn, conform to that which is established in the classification plans or the method used to appraise jobs. The summons shall establish the kind of competition authorized for each class by indicating whether the competition shall be limited to employees of the agency itself or to employees of the agencies covered under this chapter or open to the general public. They shall also include the criterion or criteria to be used to sort the names of the eligible candidates within the corresponding registers, such as: grade point average; grades in revalidations, exams or group interviews; and points in evaluations as to their education and/or experience in addition to the established in the minimum requirements, or a combination thereof. Summons shall also include, in the appropriate cases, aspects such as: passing grades for exams; evaluating factors for interviews and evaluations as to education and experience; and relative values adjudicated to each criterion used to sort the names in the registers when using more than one criterion. Said summons shall be reviewed periodically so that they may reflect the changes in the job market and other conditions.
(c) Job summons shall be published on the web page of the government and through the most appropriate media for each case, in order to reach resources. When the announcement of job opportunities establishes a term for filing applications, it shall be published at least ten (10) work days before the closing date. The diversity of media or the medium to be used in the diffusion and the term to receive applications shall be subject to criteria such as the following: degree of specialization of the job class, job market, number of jobs to be covered, geographical area of the job opportunity, and the kind of competition. Each job opportunity announcement shall indicate the title of the job class, the nature of the work, the minimum requirements, the salary schedule, the term for filing applications, and any other necessary information such as the kind of competition, the kind of test and/or the criteria for the evaluation or sorting of the names in the eligible candidate register. The Office, together with the Office of Management and Budget, shall regulate the publication of calls for applications on the web page and shall provide in its regulations that any recruitment made without complying with these provisions shall be null. Individual agencies and administrators of the personnel system, as well as public corporations, municipalities, and all other agencies excluded from the personnel system, except for the Office of the Governor, mayors’ office, the Office of the Supreme Court, the Office of the Chief Justice, the Office of the Court Administrator, the Offices of the Legislative Bodies, and the Clerks’ Offices of the Municipal Legislatures, shall notify the Office of calls for applications for recruitment and selection, as well as promotion and training opportunities, including a copy thereof any information related to the corresponding requirements, functions, remuneration, and other relative aspects, as established above. The Office shall establish and manage a Central Register of Calls for Applications for Recruitment, Promotions, and Training in the Public Service and its electronic version over the Internet. The Central Call for Applications Register for Public Service Recruitment, Promotions, and Training may be accessed through the webpage of the Office and that of the Central Government in which the information contained in the Register as well as in the calls for applications for recruitment, selection, promotions, and training shall be published, thus making the complete text thereof available anytime that is convenient. In the event of calls for applications without a closing date, the Office shall be responsible for coordinating with the agencies, so that the information regarding the register, the calls for applications, and the information published in the media and the web may be updated at least every ten (10) days, as provided by regulations. Individual agencies and administrators of the personnel system, as well as public corporations, municipalities and all other agencies excluded from the personnel system, including, voluntarily, the Office of the Governor, mayors’ offices, the Office of the Supreme Court, the Office of the Chief Justice, the Office of the Court Administrator, the Officer of the Legislative Bodies, and the Clerks’ Office of Municipal Legislatures may establish and operate their own register of calls for applications for recruitment, promotions, and/or training, and manage their own webpages and publish through them the corresponding information. The citizens may submit their application for recruitment, selection, promotions, and training on the Internet, through the webpage created pursuant to the regulations adopted by the Office.
(d) In those cases where it is determined that recruitment is to be carried out through a test approval process, any person who has taken the test may request the review of his/her test results if he or she does so within a term of fifteen (15) days as of the date the notification of said results were sent through the mail.
(e) Eligible candidate registers shall be sorted in a strictly descending order by using the grades or points obtained for the corresponding job class. In cases where there are equal grades, the order may be determined by taking into account one (1) or more of the following factors:
(A) General or specialized education.
(B) Experience.
(C) Grade point average in academic or specialized education.
(D) Date the application was filed.
(f) Vacant regular career jobs shall be covered by means of a selection process that shall include the following stages:
(A) The certification of the number of eligible candidates that the appointing authority determines through regulations, which shall not be greater than ten (10) per vacant job to be covered, within their corresponding order in the eligible candidate register.
(B) Selection by the appointing authority of one of the certified candidates within a reasonable time limit which shall be determined by the agency in the regulations it adopts by virtue of this chapter, being it established that after fifteen (15) work days as of the date of issue of the certification of eligible candidates, such eligible candidates may be included in other certifications even if the corresponding selection has not yet been carried out.
(C) The certified candidates who are not selected shall be given written notice thereof. In said notice, they shall be informed that they were not selected, as well as of their ensuing inclusion in the eligible candidate register.
(D) Satisfactory compliance of the probation period established. The probation period shall comprise an entire cycle of the functions of the job. This period shall be of not less than three (3) months and not greater than one (1) year, except for those agencies whose organic acts or special laws provide for a probation period of a different duration, with a more extensive work cycle. Official forms designed for these purposes shall be used and the evaluations made shall be discussed with employees. The final action shall be notified in writing to the employee at least ten (10) days in advance of its effectiveness. Agencies and municipalities shall regulate the provisions on the probation period.
(g) Upon satisfactorily completing the probation period, the employee shall become a regular career employee.
(h) Each agency may establish through regulations, special recruitment and selection procedures:
(A) For jobs requiring non-skilled or semi-skilled workers.
(B) To guarantee equal opportunity employment for participants in training and employment programs, in order to achieve the goals of such programs.
(i) Persons appointed to fixed duration jobs shall have a transitory status. Also of a transitory status shall be those appointments to permanent career jobs made under the following circumstances:
(A) When the person holding the job is out on leave without pay.
(B) When there is not an adequate eligible candidate register for a job that requires a certain kind of license and the candidate to be appointed holds a provisional license.
(C) When the person holding the job has been removed and has appealed this action at the appeals forum.
(D) When the person holding the job has been suspended from job and pay for a determinate period.
(E) When the person holding the job is moved to another position through a transitory appointment and is entitled to return to his or her former job.
(F) When in addressing the needs of the service, it is indispensable to cover a position reserved for a person on scholarship, in which case, the transitory appointment shall be extended for the duration of the scholarship.
(G) When an emergency arises in the rendering of services which makes it impossible or difficult to certify candidates within an eligible candidate register, in which case, the appointment shall have a duration of not more than six (6) months. Upon termination of this period, if the appointing authority believes that the conditions which motivated the original appointment persist, it may extend said appointment for an additional term of six (6) months.
(H) When the person holding the regular career job moves to a position within the confidential service.
(j) Transitory appointments may be made within the confidential service.
(k) The persons to be recruited into transitory non-skilled or semi-skilled jobs shall be subject to an evaluation for the purpose of determining whether they meet the minimum requirements for the job and the general conditions for being admitted into the public service. Transitory appointments in the confidential service shall be governed by Section 9.1(3) of this act. Such appointments may not exceed a term of twelve (12) months, except for positions authorized for programs or projects of definite duration. Transitory appointments in permanent jobs may when the circumstances which originated said appointments persist, except when as provided for in clause (i)(G) of this subsection.
(l) Each appointing authority may authorize selective certifications when the special qualifications for the job so require officially.
(m) The personnel comprised within the confidential service as defined in this chapter shall be selected at will and removed at will, and they shall meet those requirements in terms of education, experience and other nature, as the appointing authority may consider indispensable for the proper performance of the functions assigned to the job.
(n) Persons may have their application declined, their tests cancelled or their eligibility in the registry annulled, or be declared ineligible for the public service if they fail to meet the requirements established or if they have attempted to deceive or commit fraud in terms of the information submitted, or if they have attempted to commit or have committed a crime against public property, such as misappropriation, theft or mutilation of the tests to be administered or already administered. The above, in the case of public employees, may constitute grounds for removal or the imposition of any other disciplinary measure.
(o) The regulations of each of the agencies shall provide for the cancellation of registers when these do not respond to the needs of the public service, and it shall be required for the candidates listed on said register to be given notice of such cancellation through public announcement and the government web page.
History —Aug. 3, 2004, No. 184, § 6.3; Jan. 23, 2006, No. 32, § 2, eff. 60 days after Jan. 23, 2006; May 29, 2013, No. 22, § 6.