A historical agreement in educational and social initiative centres in the Basque Country

Nov 14, 2019
A 29-day strike has been necessary for the trade unions ELA, Steilas and CCOO to sign an agreement with the employers of the social initiative educational centres and, consequently, after 10 years, the collective bargaining agreement has been renewed.

Starting a strike called for a month has been essential for the workers in the social initiative centres to reach a decent agreement. Up until this point, the employers and the Basque Government had not been willing to renew the collective bargaining agreement. This morning the agreement was ratified by the assemblies of delegates and trade union delegates.

This agreement has positive consequences for all the most insecure working sectors. Personal Educational Support, amongst other steps, will have a 97 hour working hour reduction and a minimum of 35 hours will be acknowledged for coordination. Likewise, the staff from the first cycle of Primary Education will see their working hours reduced by 45 hours and 125 hours of their yearly working hours will be reserved for coordination work.

An agreement was also reached regarding outplacement and job creation. Thanks to this agreement, the workers in centres where classrooms are closed will have the option of taking over the jobs that become vacant by retiring staff and consequently, they will not lose their jobs. This has been made possible, to a large extent, by the right to 75% partial retirement that has been achieved for all the workers in the sector.

In turn, during the four years of validity of the agreement, the staff will regain almost half of the purchasing power lost since 2009, specifically, wages will increase by 4 points above the CPI, divided up over these 4 years.

Alongside these steps, other improvements that will have positive consequences both for the working conditions and on the pupils’ educational quality have also been included:

  • Teaching staff will have a minimum of 3 extra hours to prepare classes.

  • 40 hours per year will be acknowledged for work outside the classroom.

  • The administration staff will see their working hours reduced by 30 hours.

  • Unforeseeable leave will be covered by at least the third day.

  • The working day for personnel in the Professional Training area has been regulated.

After signing the agreement with the employers, and with the backing of the Basque Government on the subject of outplacements, the trade unions that called the strike ratified the agreement in its assembly.

ELA would like to congratulate the workers from the social initiative centres. They have shown incredible solidarity and generosity in this memorable struggle. They have improved their working conditions and the educational quality of their pupils will also see an appreciable improvement. The moment to make in depth valuations will come; today is a great day of celebrations for both workers and pupils.