The Government of the Generalitat yesterday approved the labor improvements for teachers that were agreed in January with two of the educational unions (the UGT and CC.OO.), but since they were linked to the approval of budgets, they could not be specify Specifically, teachers over the age of 60 will benefit, with the reduction of two teaching hours from September, a measure that will cover those aged 55 in the 2025-2026 school year. With this measure, the sexennis will be normalized and the salary of technical FP teachers will be equalized.
They are the “fringes” that remained from the economic cuts of the economic crisis of 2012 and that had not yet been reversed. The agreement was signed in January with CC.OO. and the UGT, despite the fact that it was supported by all the unions with disagreements on how to carry it out. The extension of the budget prevented it from becoming a reality and now Education, which has asked for a loan from the Ministry of Finance and Economy, has taken it forward. The cost for this exercise is almost 78 million.
The agreement contains the reduction of teaching hours for teachers over 55 years of age with more than 15 years of service in public schools. The measure will be scheduled in two courses. Therefore, two teaching hours will begin to be reduced in the 2024-2025 academic year for those over 60, which implies a cost of between 1.73 and 2.42 million euros. From the 2025-2026 school year, the reduction will be for teachers over 55 years of age.
The working hours of kindergarten and primary school teachers are 37.5 hours, of which 23 hours are teaching, in classroom classes, and the rest are dedicated to meetings, preparing classes and correcting exams. For secondary school teachers, it is 18 teaching hours which, in the case of the older ones, will now go to 16.
However, the measure that affects the most teachers and is the one that involves the most budget is the recognition of the first teaching stage. The teaching stages are a complementary remuneration of seniority that values ??the experience of the teaching staff. With the cuts, it went from being charged from the sixth year to the ninth, and now back to the sixth.
This measure has an economic cost of 55 million euros for 2024, 23.59 million for 2025 and 21.67 million for 2026, and a direct impact on 43,649 teachers.
The pact also reaches the staff of the concerted centres, who receive their remuneration through what is called delegated payment. The teacher promotion stages were applied to this group in 2006, and in 2012 the first stage was delayed to 9 years. Now they will also be given their recognition back after six years, which means an investment of more than 14 million euros.
Finally, the third demand, much demanded by the unions in the last year, is the increase in the salary of the teaching staff of the body of technical teachers of FP and the body of teachers of plastic arts and design workshops who do not have the qualification necessary to join the body of secondary education teachers according to the education law (Lomloe). They needed a higher qualification that many lacked because they are technical specialists in their profession. The equalization is carried out by establishing a temporary personal supplement of 175.19 gross monthly euros for career civil servants, trainee civil servants and interim civil servants. This measure requires an investment of 6.6 million euros.
In this way, the Department of Education has reversed all the cuts in the labor rights of teaching staff, since in the previous two years the reduction of teaching hours for all teachers, the conversion of third day in half day or the reduction of shifts.
