Take one example. To hire a technician (or a post doc) with project money one has to go through a cumbersome process that involves the so called "bolsa de trabajo". This is a database where anyone can dump their CVs and generate a few keywords to go along. When we open a call, the desired job profile is entered in the "bolsa de trabajo" and any person with keywords that match the call are listed as candidates for the job. This means researchers typically have to evaluate more than 300 of completely hopeless and off-the-point CVs. Of course we never find who we need for a job with such "bolsa de trabajo" and we have to advertise the position through mailings lists and web pages and finally ask the chosen candidates to register in this web page so that they can be "officially" selected. As if this wasn't enough the trade unions managed to win a Court process, which dictates that researchers are mere experts in the selection process. The final decision regarding the candidate ranking has to be approved by trade unions and they have the power to change our decision. So, in addition to preparing the project, obtain funding for it, search for suitable candidates, deal with the "bolsa de trabajo", evaluate >300 hopless CVs, we may have our decision overturned by anonymous trade unionists.
Of course trade unionists, judges, and other bureaucrats alike don't get that science, nowadays, is a Darwinian process. Researchers only get projects if they are competitive, and they are competitive only if they carefully select their staff based on merits rather than surnames.
It surely wasn't by accident that world-famous surrealistic artist, Salvador Dali, was born in Spain.
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