Teachers are left without personal days: Education withdraws the proposal due to union rejection

PalmaTeachers in public schools in the Balearic Islands will not finally have days of free disposal – known as personal days

According to the draft resolution, teachers could have had up to six working days paid per school year, without needing to justify the reason for the request. The right, however, would have always been subject to the needs of the service and the organization of the centers, with the possibility that the management could deny or limit the permits if deemed necessary to guarantee the functioning of the classes.

The proposal also established a system of calculation and proportionality. In the case of interim staff, the days would have been adjusted based on the time worked, with the reference that a full school year would be equivalent to 175 teaching days. Likewise, specific criteria were defined for teachers in practice or with late incorporation.

One of the central points was how to distribute these days throughout the school year. The Ministry proposed a mandatory distribution: one day should be enjoyed at the beginning or end of the school year; another, within the teaching period, and the remaining four, during non-teaching periods, such as Christmas holidays, Easter, and July. This configuration sought to avoid concentrations of absences during the school year.

STEI is in favor of recognizing this right, but not of how the days were distributed. "It is a complete mockery. We cannot accept it because, on the one hand, we consider that both the beginning and end of the school year are essential times for the preparation and closing of the course; on the other hand, we think that days for personal matters should be enjoyed throughout the entire course," state sources from the union, who also consider it "funny" that most of the days can be enjoyed during periods that are already rest periods. UOB is also critical of the Education proposal. The union asked the Ministry to collect and establish paid personal days for teachers "without arbitrary restrictions or delusional impositions".

To avoid coincidences

In parallel, the resolution set strict limits per center to avoid alterations in the functioning of educational centers. During the academic period, the number of simultaneous permits would have been reduced and dependent on the size of the center, while at the beginning and end of the course, a maximum of 30% of the staff would have been established. A prioritization system had also been foreseen in case of coinciding requests, which combined criteria such as unforeseen situations, the number of days already enjoyed during the course, the order of entry of the request, and the teacher's seniority, among others.

The request would have had to be processed at least five days in advance through a computer application, and in case of no response within the deadline, it would have been understood as granted by administrative silence. In addition, unused days could not be accumulated or transferred to subsequent courses, nor generate economic compensation. Finally, the proposal did not go ahead after the negotiation process, so it will not come into effect on September 1, 2026, as planned.