In just three months, the Social Chamber of the Supreme Court has made final at least eleven convictions that oblige the Ministry of Education of the Government of the Canary Islands to integrate as workforce the employees of the private company that granted the service for students with disabilities.
These documents confirm that there was an illegal transfer of workers from the contractor Aeromédica to the public administration and order both to pay the salary differences to the people concerned, since the emoluments they received in the private company were significantly lower than those charged to the public for the same functions.
Aeromédica has been providing service in so-called isolated classes (for the care of disabled students or those with serious behavioral problems) since April 2016. This contract was valid for four years and was extraordinarily extended for an additional year, until as of March 31, 2021. Although the award expired three and a half years ago, this company continues to provide service and billing under invalidity proceedings. The cost of the service for this course, according to official sources from the Ministry of Education, is around 20 million euros. Last year it was planned for 13 euros and ended up costing 16 euros. The regional government says it is working on the tender for the new competition and hopes to be able to publish the rules “in the coming months”.
The convictions now ratified by the Supreme Court put an end to the procedures opened by the workers between 2020 and 2021. And all the resolutions agree on the fact that the winning company did not respect its control obligations. The contract required Aeromédica to appoint a coordinating person to organize the action plan, work programs, time control, permits and sick leave. However, in the province of Las Palmas alone, this coordinator must supervise “400 workers”, which covers “around 200 centers that she must visit throughout the year”.
According to the Supreme Court, the company neglected control and coordination. The hired staff received instructions from the educational team of the public centers, used the material resources of the Ministry of Education and their schedule coincided with the school year. The judgments conclude that Aeromédica limited itself to providing “manpower” to the Canary Islands government and to maintaining “mere superficial communication by telematic means” with its own staff and that, therefore, there had an illegal transfer of workers (a practice prohibited by labor legislation) and not a “legal outsourcing” of the service, as Education defended.
There are two direct consequences of these convictions. On the one hand, the Aeromédica staff concerned acquire the status of indefinite, non-fixed and discontinuous work staff of the Ministry of Education. And, on the other hand, the entrepreneur and the public administration must jointly pay the differences in amounts. For example, an Aeromedical employee hired as a workshop assistant earned around 845 euros per month for 25 hours of lessons. The salary of a public sector educational assistant amounts to 1,049 per month for these same hours. And that of a workshop teacher (category which would be equivalent in the public sector to that of an auxiliary in the private sector), 1,164.02 euros. That’s 300 more.
As part of these procedures, the Ministry of Education presented several Andalusian cases to the Supreme Court as contrasting decisions. However, the High Court concluded that they are not comparable because the Council’s contractors “acted like real businesswomen”, exercising “managerial power and disciplinary power, having coordinators who manage absences and carry out monthly visits”.
The Ministry of Education maintains that these decisions do not call into question “the very nature of the contract, nor the functions of the staff” hired by Aeromédica, but rather “particular circumstances or management problems in certain centers”. In addition, they emphasize that these are demands made “several years ago” and that this year the instructions for the management of this personnel have been updated, in order not to engage in illegal transfer again of workers. “A guide intended for management teams will soon be published which will aim to clarify as much as possible the functions of this staff, as well as the correct procedures for managing the service,” they emphasize.
Complaints from families and unions
The current Education team of the Popular Party (PP) claims to be working to launch a call for tenders for the new contract “as soon as possible” and accuses the previous one, of the PSOE, of “having let it become null and void.” “. “The most serious thing is that, if it were not (invalid), “it could be financed 85% with European funds”, so the cost for the ministry would be around three million and the rest could be used “to improve the service” or to cover other needs The Canarian government defends that it is “usual” for private companies to provide services in public administrations, including in the field of education.
At the end of July, thirteen entities, including unions and associations, filed a document expressing their opposition to a private company providing care services to students with specific support needs on the Islands. “Privatizing NEAE education is equivalent to precariousness, it is treating families as second-class citizens,” they emphasize. The document has already been admitted for processing by the Commission of the Parliament of the Canary Islands.
“These are services subcontracted to private companies which, obviously, have a profit motive, because their intention is to obtain profits, but public education is a public service and not a company that subcontracts to another,” says Gerardo Rodríguez, STEC spokesperson. IC, which recalls that the union has repeatedly requested its own employment lists for classroom staff in the enclave. In addition, he emphasizes that Aeromédica workers find themselves “in a vulnerable situation, with fairly precarious contracts and hours that are perhaps not what they should be.” He alludes, as an example, to the absence of assistants to accompany these students to transport. And he adds that “often” they are hired late and are not at the start of the course.
Jorge Hernández is coordinator of the NEAE commission of the Confederation of Associations of Mothers and Fathers of the Canary Islands (Confapa). “The government wants to save money and takes advantage of the weakest link, namely students with special needs,” he denounces. Hernández is also AMPA president of the Luis Cobiella Institute in La Palma. Last year, two workshop teachers retired at this center and the ministry turned to Aeromédica staff to replace them. “They sent us workers who said they were workshop assistants (the private equivalent of a public workshop teacher), but they weren’t even assistants (a lower category), they didn’t match the profile. And what’s more, with programming outside the center. I was planning to teach programming for children and primary schools in a secondary school. “My son is bored,” says the family representative. Last Wednesday, a demonstration took place in front of the island’s education headquarters to denounce the lack of teaching staff in the enclave’s classrooms.
Hernández highlights the need for teachers to meet a certain profile. “In secondary school, enclosed classes are transition rooms to adult life, where you have to work on prerequisite skills for work. It is defined in the Canarian Education Law of 2014. It must be a teacher with tools, knowledge in occupational risk prevention and specific knowledge in NEAE”, explains the representative of the families, who also denounces that, when hired by 25 hours, students cannot attend certain activities, such as extracurricular activities or trips.
“The Ministry of Education has no control over the qualifications of personnel hired by Aeromédica and does not approve that they have the educational profile or prior preparation to enter an educational field. This has resulted in the introduction of professional profiles with skills purely related to health or health. Caregivers instead of teaching assistants. Workshop assistant instead of workshop teacher,” explains Francisca Pérez, member of the Canary Islands School Board, representative of the administration and services staff and complementary educational support of the STEC-IC union.
Pérez has worked as a teaching assistant in the Islands for thirty years. “The assistant is a key element in the centers to achieve inclusion and equality for students with disabilities. This is why we must demand importance, care and rigor in selection,” he emphasizes. With this category, 186 public officials are hired. The School Council representative estimates that there are “more than a thousand (including workshop assistants and caregivers)” who provide services through the winning company. “Public education assistants, through the Canarian Institute of Public Administration (ICAP), receive professional requalification courses and at the center too,” he emphasizes.
According to Pérez, in its attempt to avoid new trials and possible convictions for illegal transfer of workers and, at the same time, maintain the privatization of the service, the Ministry of Education is generating “chaos in the organization and the functioning” of the centers. . For example, restricting the functions and powers of assistants, “always indicating the tutor as responsible for the group of students”, or establishing the need to have a link between the educational center and the company, “but also between the management of the team and workers.” “Managing any daily incident requires having to resort to a third person as an interpreter for its adequate and rapid resolution because management must avoid giving direct orders to this staff,” explains the Council representative school.
