Union delegates of the custodians of the public schools of A Coruña have attended the municipal plenary session today, after a concentration in the Plaza de María Pita, to protest the decision of the Local government of A Coruña to extend their work calendar until July 10, when it usually ends on June 30. The workers were informed of this decision last Monday at a meeting held at the Metropolitan Forum and to which they were summoned only a few hours before and in which everyone voted against going to their posts, except for three who decided to abstain.
Despite this vote, the next day the janitors received an order from the Councilor for Personnel, José Manuel Lage, and also signed by the Councilor for Education, Jesús Celemín, urging them to go to their jobs on Wednesday. According to the CIG and CCOO unions, the local government, which yesterday avoided giving its version of events, justifies the measure due to the health emergency generated by the pandemic and by the need for them to remain in the centers to attend to the families of the students who come to manage enrollment or deliveries of books. The union representatives recall that during the state of alarm the janitors went to the schools on a voluntary basis to distribute the menus for the school lunch scholarships and that their presence in the schools is now unnecessary, since there are very few people who pass through them.
Marina Lorenzo, union delegate of the janitors and member of CCOO, denounces that Covid 19 is an excuse on the fact that they must be in schools because of the sanitary measures imposed, since he recalls that the directors of the centers have demanded their presence in the first days of July for years. Lorenzo points out that the Xunta has forced the directors of the schools to remain in their positions until July 15, but clarifies that the custodians are municipal personnel, so this order does not affect them.
“They do not realize that we go morning and afternoon throughout the year and they only go in the morning, except one day a week,” this union delegate comments on the demands of the teachers, who adds that the rest of the janitors del Concello only work one shift and they are compensated by exemption from working in July, according to a 1989 agreement.
Despite this situation, all the schools had this staff thanks to the coverage allowed by the substitutes, except in one in which it was not possible and through which, according to Marina Lorenzo, only six people passed throughout the morning.
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