Education department and unions reach new deal on working conditions

Catalonia's education department and the CCOO and UGT unions signed an agreement on Thursday that will see teachers receive a salary increase for longevity after six years rather than nine. 

Staff over 55 will gradually have their teaching hours reduced up to two hours, while vocational training (FP) teachers will be paid the same as secondary school teachers. 

The deal is to benefit more than 43,000 teachers but is conditional on the government's next budget being approved by Parliament. 

The department and the CCOO and UGT unions said they were very satisfied with the agreement. Other unions, however, have not given it their support.  

The new set of measures will cost €67.5 million in 2024 alone and is subject to the approval of the 2024 budget in Parliament.

Announcing the agreement, Catalan Minister Anna Simó urged other parliamentary parties to approve the budget to make the deal effective. 

"This is an agreement to reverse the cutbacks, an agreement that we have been waiting for for a long time, especially the educational community, but also the government," she said. 

The agreement reverses the most significant cutbacks in teaching staff over the past decade that remained, following the reduction of teaching hours for all teachers in the previous two academic years and the reduction of one-third of the working day to half a day.