Educators of students with disorders denounce that they are treated as “second-class workers”

Short, poorly paid working hours. Combine several schools if you want to complete the day. Contracts as leisure instructors. Uncertainty about whether the next course will have a contract. These are some of the situations and working conditions that those known as vigilancewho are educational support personnel who serve students with educational needs related to a disability or behavioral disorder. The complaints from this sector are recurring because their situation is not improving and this Tuesday they staged a protest in Vallès Occidental (which they want to extend to other territories in the coming weeks) to denounce that they feel “discriminated against” and “second-class workers”, and demand what they believe would be the definitive solution: the internalization of the service.

The collective of vigilance They had been part of the Education staff years ago, until the Department decided to outsource the service. Thus, the contract is periodically put out to tender. The last one was awarded in June 2022 – extendable until 2026 – to four companies, for a value of 25 million and 46,388 hours for public centers, except for the city of Barcelona. But in total, 78,554 hours per week are currently being offered in the last academic year (including Barcelona and the concerted one), a figure that has been maintained, due to the budget extension, according to Education, but much higher than that of the 2020-21 academic year when There were 52,635. Some 14,000 students benefit from these hours and have an opinion from the EAP, the psycho-pedagogical advisory teams, which carry out an assessment of the students and determine what resources they need.

At the beginning of last year, complaints arose from centers and families stating that the hours of care had been cut, although Education attributed this to a change in the redistribution of hours since 20% of the time had to be reserved for the space. of the dining room. Even then the Department admitted that it could not increase staffing, despite increased needs, because it had exhausted the entire budget.

From the CC OO union they denounce that there are centers that are still waiting for a watchman because very small days are offered. “If they offer you two hours a week, they pay you 20 hours and maybe you have one hour on the transfer, it is normal that no one takes the offer,” explains Jessica Estepa, union representative. Estepa also complains that in some cases companies do not have a pool of personnel, so when a loss occurs, it is difficult to cover it and sometimes a replacement cannot be found.

The union criticizes the precariousness of this type of workers, who usually have discontinuous permanent contracts and in the educational leisure sector. And for 10 hours a week they can charge 300 euros. “We are not leisure instructors, we are educators, we are educational personnel and a key figure in serving students in need,” claims Estepa. For this reason, the union met this Tuesday with those responsible for the Territorial Services of Vallès Occidental (who manage the contracts and hours of this staff) to demand that Education internalize the service again.

Via Augusta Court

Hours earlier, educational unions staged another protest, this time on Via Augusta in Barcelona, ​​right in front of the headquarters of the Department of Education. On this occasion, union representatives have placed dozens of chairs on the road to demand that no civil servant position be left empty and that the department call for up to 35,000 positions in the next transfer competition that must be held next year.

The transfer competition is a state mechanism that is held every two years and is used so that teachers who have recently become civil servants can choose their final destination. The Government is already preparing the new edition, which will be released next spring so that teachers can begin the course in their new destination.

The 31,000 new officials who have managed to stabilize in the last two years as a result of the macro process to reduce the interim staff in the administration will be able to participate in this call, although Education raises up to 45,000 teachers who may sign up. The unions are asking that some 35,000 positions be called, to cover those cases in which they did not achieve an award (fewer positions can be called than applicants), in addition to adding retirements from recent years.

While the unions were blocking Via Augusta, a sectoral table was held between the Department and the workers’ representatives in which Education has not given figures, but has committed to calling for “the maximum number of positions possible”, according to the unions, and to carry out a regional transfer competition next year, something that has not happened for many years.

The unions claim that it is possible to increase the number of positions that are called for by eliminating those that are known as “profiled”, that is, those that are blocked by the management teams and decide what type of professional they want to occupy it so that it adapts to the needs of your educational project, such as, for example, a teacher who teaches Mathematics in English. The unions have always demanded the elimination of this possibility because they consider that it opens the door to cronyism.