Collective Agreement which regulates English teachers’ salaries: Convenio Colectivo de Enseñanza y Formación no Reglada

[:en]Following some post on Facebook groups about teachers and teacher’s salaries, I get the impression many don’t understand where these salaries come from. Some even think academies decide them on their own accord.

Teacher’s salaries are legally regulated by a collective labour agreement. In the case of English Language Teachers the agreement is the Convenio Colectivo de Enseñanza y Formación no Reglada.  This agreement is published each year in the BOE (Boletín Oficial del Estado) and can be checked online. I will try to updated it here when and if I have the time.

• Convenio for 2017-2018. Valid until the 31st of December 2018.

Who negotiates this convenio?

That’s a good question. The BOE states as follows:

de unaparte por las asociaciones empresariales CECAP, CECE, ACA-FECEI y ANCED en
representación de las empresas del sector, y de otra por los sindicatos FECCOO y FeSPUGT
en representación de los trabajadores

• CECAP. Confederación Española de Empresas de Formación.
• CECE. Confederación Español de Centros de Enseñanza.
• FECEI: Federación Española de Centros de Enseñanza de Idiomas.
• ANCED: Asociación Nacional de Centros de E-Learning y Distancia.
• FECCOO: CCOO Enseñanza.
• FeSPUGT:Federación de empleados de servicios públicos de UGT.

I’ve been in the business for more than 10 years and have never dealt with any of them or been asked to become a member. I’ve never even heard of some of them….I’ll  just leave that there…

What information does the Convenio provide?

I recommend every teacher to take a look at it at least once as it contains a lot of crucial information. But as many don’t speak Spanish, I’ll translate here some of the most important points.

From the Convenio you can obtain the following information:

Types of contracts.

• Contratos a tiempo parcial. With a maximum of 45% of extra hours.
• Contrato eventual por circunstancias de la producción. For a maximum of 12 months.
• Contratos para la realización de una obra o servicio.
• Contrato de trabajo en prácticas. From 6 months for a maximum of 2 years and it can be done during the first 5 years of obtaining the college defree.
• Contrato para la formación y el aprendizaje. For employees between 16 and 25 years old. It has a minimum duration of 6 months and a maximum duration of 2 years.
• Contratos fijos discontinuos. A recent work inspection in our centre recommended this contract for teachers whose classes ended in June and began again in December.

Trial period for contracts.

Six months with teachers with college degree or equivalent, two months for the rest of teachers.

Job Categories.

Group 1: Teaching staff.

Profesor/a Titular.
Profesor/a de Taller.
Profesor/a Auxiliar o Adjunto/a.
Profesor/a Auxiliar «on line».
Instructor/a o Experto/a.
Educador social.

Group 2: Administrative staff.

Jefe de Administración.
Oficial Administrativo de primera.
Oficial Administrativo de segunda.
Orientador profesional.
Auxiliar Administrativo.
Redactor/a – Corrector/a.
Agente Comercial.
Televendedor.
Prospector de empleo

Group 3: Service staff.

Encargado/a de Almacén.
Empleado/a de Servicios Generales.
Auxiliar no docente.
Monitor- animador.

Group 4: Non-teaching staff.

Titulado/a no docente.

Cease of activity. Rights and obligations.

If a teacher wants to stop working for a teaching company he has to send a written notification to the company with a 30 day notice. If they don’t, the company can deduct two day’s salary for every day day up to the 30 days required.
If the employee has notified his cease of activity correctly, the company is obliged to pay the amount required. If they don’t, they will have to pay two days for every day delayed up to a maximum of thirty.

Hours, holidays, maternity leave.

• Group 1 can do a maximum of 1446 hours per year.
• The reference is to work 34 hours per week for Group 1 to obtain that maximum. Altough other agreements can be made.
• Las horas de mera presencia se considerarán dentro de la jornada de trabajo efectivo,siempre que, en virtud del horario establecido por la Dirección del centro, esta así lo estime, y se dediquen a la realización de tareas docentes y de análoga naturaleza.
  So hours in the centre, non teaching hours, can be considered working hours if they are dedicated to teaching tasks and the centre agrees to it.
• Extra hours can be paid or compensated with days off.
• Holidays: a month a year, to be enjoyed in periods of low activity, preferably during the summer. Teachers will also have the same Easter Holidays and Christmas Holidays as their students.
• Leave (summary):  -15 days for maternity leave.
  – 3 days for the birth of a son or daughter, death or serious illness of family members up to second level. 2 extra days if they have to travel.
  – 1 day for the wedding of a family member.
  – 1 day for moving day.

Salaries.

I attach a screenshot of this year’s table for the base salaries. Obviously these are base salaries, each centre can decide to pay more (not less) and they affect part time and full time contracts. But it’s the legal starting point and point of reference.

Per hour contracts are something each academy negotiates with the teacher (although I wouldn’t recommend less than 15€ per hour).

And now, as a conclusion, some comic relief  for me. A personal joke as I (director and owner) earn less than any of my employees.

The Convenio states that the following posts will add these quantities to they base salary (ha ha ha):

– Director/a: 3.031,59 euros/año.
– Subdirector/a 2.842,33 euros/año.
– Jefe de Estudio: 2.653,06 euros/año.

 [:]