The Government has decided to approve the labor improvements for teachers that were agreed last January with the unions (UGT and CC.OO.), but which, being linked to the approval of budgets, could not be materialized. Specifically, teachers over 60 years of age will benefit from the reduction of two teaching hours starting in September, a measure that will reach those over 55 years of age in the following year, the 2025-2026 academic year. On the other hand, six-year terms will be normalized and the salary of vocational training technical teachers will be equal.
With all this, the Government puts an end to the period of economic cuts that have been affecting the education sector since the economic crisis of 2012 and gives rise to the demands of the unions.
These improvements represent some 78 million by 2024 that the Department of Education has achieved, with an extended budget, thanks to an extraordinary loan from the Department of History and Economy.
Government spokesperson Patricia Plaja explained at a press conference that the agreement contains the reduction of teaching fees for those over 55 years of age with more than 15 years of service provided in public educational centers, which will be scheduled in two courses.
Thus, two teaching hours will begin to be reduced in the 2024-2025 academic year for those over 60 years of age, which implies a cost of between 1.73 and 2.42 million euros.
Starting in the 2025-2026 academic year, the reduction in teaching fees will be for teachers over 55 years of age.
The measure that affects the largest number of teachers and that involves the most budget refers to the recognition of the first teaching stage from six years of age. The teaching stages are a complementary remuneration that values ??the experience of the teaching staff. With the cuts, payment was made from the ninth year of the teaching career.
This measure has an economic cost of 55.04 million euros for the year 2024, 23.59 million for 2025 and 21.67 million for 2026, and will directly affect 43,649 teachers.
The pact also reaches the staff of the subsidized centers, who receive their remuneration through what is called delegated payment. The teaching promotion stages were applied to this group in 2006, and in 2012 the first stage was delayed to 9 years. Now their recognition will also be returned after six years, which represents an investment of more than 14 million euros.
The Government has also approved another of the demands highly demanded by the unions in the last year: the equalization of salaries for the teaching staff of the body of technical vocational training teachers and the body of teachers of plastic arts and design workshops who do not have the degree. necessary to join the body of secondary school teachers, according to the education law (Lomloe).
The equalization is carried out by establishing a temporary personal supplement of 175.19 euros per month gross for career civil servants, intern civil servants and interim civil servants. This measure requires an investment of 6.59 million euros.
With these measures, the Department of Education has reversed all the cuts in terms of labor rights of teaching staff from the previous decade, since in the previous two years it had already assumed the reduction of teaching hours for all teachers, the conversion from third shift to half-day or reduction of shifts.
