SIAU threatens to challenge the teaching union elections due to "lack of transparency"

PalmaThe SIAU union denounces that the union elections for non-university teaching staff in the Balearic Islands have begun with “less transparency and guarantees” than four years ago. Today, the coordinating electoral boards for each island have been formally constituted, which marks the start of the electoral process, which will culminate with the vote on December 2nd. The electoral campaign will take place from November 16th to 30th.

The union filed a formal complaint this Tuesday before the coordinating electoral boards to request that it be these bodies that set the criteria applicable to the process "with full respect for legality." The main discrepancy has to do with the Administration's intention to incorporate a QR or CSV code differentiated by candidacy onto the ballots and with the possibility that an incident in the reading or verification could affect the validity of the vote.

SIAU argues that the Order of July 16, 1998, establishes the standardized ballot models and that Royal Decree 1846/1994 regulates the causes for nullity of a vote without expressly providing for the impossibility of reading or verifying an additional code as an autonomous cause for nullity. Therefore, it demands that no "additional requirements for validity" be introduced that are not provided for in the regulations or, alternatively, that it be guaranteed in writing that an incident with these codes will not by itself annul any vote.

The union also questions the Administration's forcing of trade union organizations to enter all candidates one by one into a computer application. According to SIAU, the regulations establish that candidacies must be presented before the Coordinating Electoral Board using the corresponding model. The union considers that the Administration cannot "remote-control" boards that are responsible for conducting the process nor create new obligations through an application.

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SIAU also criticizes several differences regarding the 2022 electoral process. According to their explanation, this Tuesday they were not provided with the electoral calendar including the corresponding schedules and duly sealed, they do not have an official email address to communicate with the polling stations, and they have not been provided with the full names of the members or a labor census that would allow verifying its composition. The union also asserts that it has not received a copy of the minutes of the constitution of the polling stations. Another issue they denounce is the system for consulting the censuses. According to SIAU, this year they will not be provided in PDF format, as was done four years ago, but will have to be consulted through an application that, they claim, is not yet operational even though the electoral process has already begun. The union considers this situation especially worrying because, as they state, the Department of Education has already had IT problems in other processes, such as the allocation of temporary positions. "Problems are being created where there were none," maintains SIAU.

The union compares the situation with the state elections, which will practically coincide in time with the teaching union elections. According to SIAU, while political elections have established transparency mechanisms and guarantees, the teaching union elections are beginning this year with "less transparency, less information, and fewer guarantees" than in 2022. The union recalls that no electoral challenge was filed in the 2022 union elections. Instead, it asserts that, given how this year's process has begun, "we seriously doubt that we will be able to say the same this year." SIAU states that it will continue to demand that regulations be "scrupulously" respected and warns that, if necessary, it will resort to electoral challenge mechanisms to defend the guarantees of the process and the rights of the teaching staff.