Título I

This Law is of public order and the rights enshrined therein are minimum non-waivable guarantees for public servants, susceptible of improvement according to the needs and possibilities of the State. Consequently, all acts and provisions that imply waiver, diminution, or distortion of the rights established by the Constitution, of those indicated by this Law, and of all those acquired previously, are null ipso jure.

The general purpose of this law is to regulate relations between the Public Administration and its servants in order to guarantee its efficiency, ensure justice and incentive to them in their work, and establish the rules for the application of a personnel administration system.

The following are fundamental principles of this law:

1.All Guatemalan citizens have the right to seek public office, and no one may be prevented from exercising this right if they meet the requirements and qualifications required by law. Such offices shall be granted based solely on merits of ability, training, efficiency and honesty.

2.No discrimination shall be made in the granting of public offices on grounds of race, sex, marital status, religion, birth, social or economic position or political opinions. Physical defect or psychoneurotic ailment shall not be an impediment to holding public office, provided such conditions do not interfere with the work capacity for the work to which the applicant is to be assigned, in the judgment of the National Civil Service Board.

3.The National Civil Service System shall promote the efficiency of the public administration and guarantee its servants the exercise and defense of their rights.

4.Positions in the public administration shall be awarded on the basis of the ability, training and honesty of the applicants. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a competitive examination procedure for the granting thereof, instituting the administrative career. Positions which by their nature and purposes must remain outside the competitive examination process shall be designated by law.

5.Equal work performed under equality of conditions, efficiency and seniority shall correspond to equal wage; consequently, positions in the public administration shall be organized in a classification and evaluation plan that takes into account the duties, responsibility and requirements of each position, assigning them an equitable and uniform scale of wages.

6.Workers in the public administration shall be protected against dismissals that are not based on a legal cause. They shall also be subject to appropriate standards of discipline and receive fair economic and social benefits.

For the purposes of this law, the natural person who holds a position in the Public Administration by virtue of appointment, contract or any other legally established link, by means of which they are obligated to render their services to it or to personally execute a work for it in exchange for a wage, under the continued dependence and immediate direction of the Public Administration itself, is considered a public servant.

Cases not provided for in this law shall be resolved in accordance with the fundamental principles thereof, the doctrines of personnel administration in the public service, equity, ordinary laws and the general principles of Law.

With the exception of the respective appointment or contract, all juridical acts and procedures of any kind carried out by reason of the application of this Law are exempt from stamped-paper and fiscal-stamp taxes.

The public servants covered by this law must be Guatemalan citizens, and foreigners may only be employed when there are no Guatemalans who can perform the work in question efficiently, upon prior decision of the National Civil Service Office, which shall gather the necessary information.