The Junta de Andalucía has rejected – when classes had already started – the intercommunity service commission that 18 teachers had requested to move to the Valencian Community this school year 2024/2025 for reasons of family conciliation. The Ministry of Educational Development has cancelled their transfer when it had already taken place and the 18 teachers were teaching in the schools that the Valencian Government had assigned to them at the beginning of September.
The Executive of Juan Manuel Moreno (PP) communicated this decision to that of Carlos Mazón (also of the PP) in the second week of September, when the teachers had already joined the destination center that had been assigned to them in July. The refusal of the transfer breaks the models and school planning of these 18 Valencian schools and comes at a critical time for Andalusia, which has registered in recent days more than 3,000 “surprising” dismissals of teachers at the beginning of the school year.
The cases in the Valencian Community are added to the 30 in the Murcia region reported by this newspaper, but they have the “aggravating circumstance” that the Valencian career civil servants find themselves in a situation “of an exceptional nature due to weighty family reasons”, as explained by the USTEA union, which is caring for several teachers suffering from “anxiety attacks due to the brutal change that this represents in their lives from one day to the next”.
Intercommunity service commissions – those that take place between autonomous communities – require the authorisation of both administrations, the one of destination and the one provided by this public service (Andalusia in this case). The representatives of the USTEA assure that the rejection of this approach is unprecedented, since “traditionally Andalusia has always accepted all requests” from the Valencian Community, which only grants service commissions “for social reasons” (i.e. of a humanitarian nature, requested for reasons of reconciling family and professional life, own illness or illness of a family member, as explained by the unions).
It is also unusual, union sources indicate, that the Andalusian administration announced its refusal in September, with the teaching staff incorporated from the second day and the course in progress. Sources from the Department of Educational Development of the Junta de Andalucía limit themselves to pointing out that the 18 applications rejected in the Valencian Community “did not meet the requirements”, without specifying what they were. This newspaper has contacted the Valencian Ministry of Education on several occasions, without having received a response so far.
Story of a “nightmare”
Among the teachers concerned is a teacher who had already been authorised to work in the last two years because she was caring for a “first-degree dependent relative” (her sick father) in the Valencian Community. This year, she requested it again for the third time and after presenting all the required documents (medical reports, social security, family record book) and completing “the same procedures” as the two previous times, the Valencian administration authorised the transfer again and assigned her a centre at the end of July.
However, “without prior notice” and ten days after moving into the centre that had been assigned to him in his home community, the Valencian Ministry of Education informed him that Andalusia had denied him authorisation and that he had to return “immediately” to his reference centre in Seville, where the square is located. “It’s a nightmare, no one explains to me why they took away my permit and I can’t file a complaint or present my case,” he denounces in a conversation with the Andalusian edition of elDiario.es.
Beyond her personal situation – she admits that she still does not know how she will manage caring for her father if she has to return to the Andalusian capital – this teacher regrets the situation of “helplessness” in which the autistic students of the school find themselves. the school are left. specific class in which she had been tutor for two years.
Of a humanitarian nature
Another of the teachers affected received approval from the Valencian Community to “look after children from 1 to 4 years old” also on July 26, as indicated in the resolution that this newspaper had access to. Like his partner, he says he feels “emotionally destroyed.” “From one day to the next, they change life… with the joy we have had of being able to work from home this year and being able to reconcile,” he confesses, before criticizing that “the system is very poorly planned because of the dates, times and the way of doing it. “If this is resolved before, these setbacks will not affect me in the same way because I plan in July,” he reproaches the Andalusian administration.
This Valencian professor based in Almeria agrees with the rest of those involved in the fact that “they have not evaluated the cases individually”, because otherwise they cannot explain why the Andalusian government has revoked the transfer of these career civil servants “with serious family conciliation problems”, add the union organizations.
Online, they explain that there are different types of service commissions: those of an educational nature (related to the development of specific educational programs) and those of a humanitarian nature (which are requested when there are “reasons to reconcile family and professional life”, “personal or family illness, conflict at the center or adaptation of the position”), according to the ANPE union. In the Valencian Community, the union organizations emphasize, service commissions are only granted “for social reasons”, so these 18 cases fall under those of a humanitarian nature.
“This is the first time that we have encountered such a situation,” the unions point out, criticizing the Andalusian administration for its “lack of planning.” Andalusia has demanded the return of these 48 career civil servants (adding the figure given by the Council in the case of the Region of Murcia and the Valencian Community) when, at the same time, the school year has begun with an extraordinary call for places to fill the shortage of more than 3,000 teachers.
In any case, the Ministry of Educational Development attributes this rejection to a matter of “non-compliance with the requirements” and adds that the applications were registered “in the last days of August”. The career civil servants concerned requested the service commission from the Generalitat Valenciana at least one month before the end of the course and received the appointment in the Community centres at the end of July. It should be remembered that at that time, Andalusia was going through a government crisis that led to a change of head of the Department of Educational Development.
Replacements in Valencia
In the case of Murcia (also governed by the Popular Party), the Ministry of Education has dishonoured the Andalusian government for communicating its rejection “late and outside the usual deadlines”. Not knowing their position against the transfer “in writing in advance”, the Murcia administration has assigned them a position in the Region’s arbitration processes since July.
From the Department of Education of Murcia, they affirm that “the Ministry has dedicated itself to justifying the humanitarian or pedagogical needs of each particular case so that these teachers can practice in the Region, carrying out negotiations with the Junta de Andalucía” and achieving “a situation that initially affected 130 teachers, to finally affect 30.” The majority of these thirty people affected are career civil servants of Murcian origin who obtained their position during the stabilization process allowed by the Junta de Andalucía in 2023, and who requested for the first time the service commission as a teacher with the intention of getting closer to your community of origin.
However, from the Murcian inter-union STERM, they denounce that the Regional Department of Education has “violated” the labor rights of these 30 teachers, for having “deleted their appointments and the days they spent in their centers do not appear on their work sheets.” .service” after learning of the decision of the Andalusian Government.
On the contrary, they applaud the procedure chosen by another affected community, such as Valencia, in trying to “stop the offer of vacancies for those affected”, eliminating the now vacant positions as replacements and not as vacancies for staff, as they have been able to know the union organizations. This involves granting “a grace period” to the 18 teachers affected, so that they “keep their place” in case they manage to get the Andalusian administration to reconsider its position against their keeping outside the educational community to which they belong.
