Education dismisses interim teachers, even though their schools defend that they should keep their position

PalmaThe decision of the Department of Education regarding which interim teachers will keep vacancies of up to three years and which will lose them has opened a new conflict between the department and various educational centers. The SIAU union, which supports the affected teachers, denounces that there are "inconsistencies" in the application of the system and assures that several management teams have issued official certificates that contradict the resolutions of Education. According to these documents, some positions would have been withdrawn despite continuing to exist under the same conditions, while in other cases a teacher would have been forced to keep a position that no longer matches the needs of the one she occupied.

Affected teachers have filed discretionary appeals for reconsideration against the resolutions of the Ministry and are demanding that the assignments be reviewed according to the real situation certified by the centers themselves. The files show opposing situations: teachers who have lost the right to maintenance even though their institutes assure that the position remains active without substantial changes, and a teacher who claims to be dismissed because she considers that the position assigned to her is no longer the same.

A change of assignments at IES Calvià

An example is IES Calvià, the conflict revolves around a position in the Orientation department. The school principal maintains that the loss of the three-year position is not due to the disappearance of the job, but to the way two positions in this department were distributed.

In the certificate issued by the center, it is explained that there was an organizational alternative that would have allowed the teacher to be maintained for three courses without prejudicing any other professor. The document argues that this option would have favored "the proper functioning of the center", given "the knowledge of the students and the continuity of the cases they deal with within the Orientation department".

The affected teacher argues in her appeal that "the loss of the right to maintenance does not derive from the disappearance of the position or the modification of its characteristics, but exclusively from the way in which internal allocations have been made". She also argues that "a fully viable alternative existed" that allowed her to keep the position without affecting the needs of the service.

A similar situation occurs at CEIP Son Juny. The management team certifies that the position occupied by a teacher "has not undergone any modification with a view to the next academic year", "does not have a titular" and "has not been occupied by any civil servant with more administrative rights (than the interim one)". Despite this certification, the Ministry included the teacher in the list of interim staff who were losing their position due to a supposed displacement or reorganization of the center.

In the appeal filed with Education, the teacher maintains that "there is no reorganization of the center that affects the position", that "the vacancy continues to exist in exactly the same conditions" and that the resolution "incurs in a factual error or, subsidiarily, in an incorrect assessment of the administrative circumstances of the position".

The third documented case corresponds to IES Porto Cristo. The center's director certifies that the position "responds to the same structural need that existed during the previous school year", that "the teaching functions associated with the position continue to be the same" and that the institute "has not promoted any transformation, reconversion or modification of this position".

The center specifies that, even though the administrative code of the position has been modified, this change "does not entail, from an organizational point of view, the creation of a different job position". The affected teacher argues that this modification "constitutes solely a formal or identifying alteration" that "cannot justify, by itself, the loss of the right to maintain the position".

Sa Serra: a teacher wants to lose the position

The case of IES Sa Serra is different. In this center, the affected teacher does not claim to keep her position, but rather to be dismissed because she considers that the position assigned to her by the Ministry is not the same as the one she occupied. The center's certificate indicates that the position "has undergone modifications in its configuration and assignment". According to the document, the previous position has been awarded to a career civil servant and the teacher would occupy another position attached to the Orientation department, with new functions, groups and a morning and afternoon schedule.

In the appeal, the teacher maintains that the new position modifies "the nature of the position, the departmental assignment, the functions to be performed, the assigned groups and the hourly schedule". Therefore, she claims to be able to participate "on equal terms with the rest of the applicants" in the general award procedure.

To not stabilize?

The general secretary of SIAU, Joan Crespí, considers that these files show problems in the application of the three-year position maintenance regime. "What is not understood is that, if a position is not occupied by any civil servant with more administrative rights and does not undergo any modification, the interim is dismissed," he states.

Crespí assures that "many management teams are surprised because interim teaching staff who were working well in the centers have been dismissed," while "there are cases of people who did not want to continue, who should have been dismissed, and finally have not been." According to the union leader, "the Department of Education has acted unilaterally, outside of management teams and current regulations."

The union also points out that these decisions "could be related to the fact that the Department wants to dismiss interim staff to avoid having to stabilize them and that it cannot be said that the Administration has kept interim staff in fraud of law for more than three years, as well as trying to avoid having to consolidate more public positions." The appeals filed by the teachers now ask that Education review the resolutions and adapt the adjudications to the reality of each position, taking into account the certificates issued by the management teams of the centers.