The Government will approve on Friday the decree-law to equalize the salaries of the workers of the 0-3 nursery schools

PalmaThe Governing Council will approve this Friday the decree-law that will allow the salaries of the workers of the nursery schools for the first cycle of early childhood education, both those integrated and those not integrated into the public network, to be equated. The norm responds to one of the main demands of the sector and foresees an investment of approximately three million euros annually.

The Minister of Education and Universities, Antoni Vera, reported on this this Monday after meeting with representatives of the Xarxa 0-3, who have valued the initiative as "a very important step" to reduce the salary differences between professionals who perform the same functions.

The new decree will create a specific grant supplement for the first cycle of early childhood education, a new financing tool that will allow the remuneration of staff to be improved without modifying either the employment regime or the current collective agreements. This supplement will have retroactive effects from September 1, 2026, and will be paid proportionally to the actual working hours.

Delegated payment from 2027

One of the main novelties of the norm is that the Ministry will promote during the second half of this year the necessary actions so that, from January 2027, teachers and early childhood education technicians in contracted centers of the first cycle will be incorporated into the delegated payroll payment system, whereby the Administration will directly assume the payment of salaries. In the case of cooperatives, the possibility is foreseen that they receive directly the full amount of the financing module.

According to Vera, the decree will also reinforce control and transparency mechanisms in the management of public resources and will give both the Administration and educational centers room to adapt the management procedures and contractual modifications that the new model will require.

New commitments with the sector

During the meeting, the minister also committed to sending a proposal for the new minimums decree for the first cycle of early childhood education this week, with the forecast that it could come into effect in the 2027-2028 academic year.

In addition, Education continues to work on the future order that will regulate school canteens for the 0-3 stage. Once approved, the Balearic Islands will become the first autonomous community to have specific regulations for this service in the first cycle of early childhood education.

Vera explained that the decree-law should have been approved last week, but that the processing was postponed for legal and administrative reasons and because the Government wanted to present the text to the representatives of the Xarxa 0-3 first.

The Xarxa 0-3 celebrates the Government's "good predisposition"

The spokesperson for the Xarxa 0-3, Noelia Jiménez, has celebrated the "good predisposition" shown by the Ministry to respond to the sector's demands and has described the decree-law as "a very important step" towards salary equalization.

Jiménez also highlighted the minister's commitment to bring all parties involved together at a single negotiation table and to modify the minimums decree, another of the historical demands of the nursery school professionals.

The Xarxa 0-3 will meet on Friday in an assembly to analyze the documentation that the Ministry will send them and to debate the proposals before setting a definitive position.