The Valldemossa daycare center will close after five years with its contract expired.

PalmThe Valldemossa daycare center will close in two weeks, on November 19, after five years of operating under an expired public contract. The company currently managing the center, according to a statement from the Balearic Islands branch of the CCOO union, has already officially announced its intention to withdraw from the service.

The union has pointed out that the municipal daycare center's public contract expired in 2020, with invoices paid "without legal basis" and "constant breaches" of the minimum standards decree. It has also failed to guarantee minimum staffing ratios, the necessary material resources, basic safety conditions, and the well-being of the children. The union has filed a complaint with the Labor Inspectorate alleging that workers have experienced repeated delays in receiving their paychecks for years and, furthermore, their absences have not been covered, exposing them to excessive workloads. All of this has occurred "with the complete inaction of the City Council," which CCOO has accused of failing to fulfill its responsibility to supervise and demand that the concessionaire provide "an essential public service such as early childhood education." The union has demanded a solution to what they have called a "disaster," and that the City Council directly assume management of the nursery school the same day the company ceases operations. Once this step is completed, they added, an internalization process would be necessary to transform the service into a stable, public one.