The IAC-CATAC union warns that the social educators of the juvenile justice centers suffer verbal and physical aggression and that at least four they have needed medical attention in the last year. “They throw bottles of urine on us, they spit on us, they insult us,” said the coordinator of this union in the Department of Justice, Mireia Herrera. IAC-CATAC will denounce the working conditions in the Labor Inspectorate in the coming days and will also take the situation, which it describes as “unsustainable”, to the Ombudsman for Children of the Ombudsman. The union announces mobilizations in July, although it rules out calling a strike considering that, due to the minimum services, it would have no repercussions.
The social educators of these centers denounce that they are in a “borderline” situation, especially due to the lack of professionals, the “precariousness” of working conditions and the violence they suffer and that “is becoming normal”. “We are suffering physical and verbal attacks, absolutely vexatious actions. The workers are hit,” Herrera warned at a press conference at the union headquarters, adding that the professionals work with “fear” and “anguish.”
lack of training
IAC-CATAC also warns that lack of training of the workers who join, professionals beyond the educational intervention to provide therapeutic care to those young people who need it and material resources to carry out the activities and established programs.
The union indicates that a third of workers are on sick leave and that the situation is especially complicated in the largest and most complex centers, such as Alzina, in the Vallès Occidental. Herrera has given as an example that, in this center, 14 of the 16 educators in the afternoon shift are substitutes; 7 of the 16 of the morning shift and 14 of the 16 of the weekend.
According to the union, this situation has meant that the vast majority of workers have left when they have obtained a place in the opposition or stabilization processes. The union coordinator in Justícia has warned that the centers “have been emptied of staff with a long history” and that “control of the coexistence units cannot be carried out correctly.” “There is not enough staff and the referents have ended up leaving,” she stressed.
labor inspections
The union accuses the Department of Justice of not having “real will to resolve the situation” and has announced complaints to the Labor Inspectorate, which will be linked to workloads and shift hours and “absolutely insufficient” infrastructures.
Related news
IAC-CATAC will also bring the situation to the child advocate, since the youths of these centers need receive the “right” educational intervention and therapeutic carethey insisted. The complaints will be presented in the coming days and they have also announced protests for July.
The union organization urges Justícia to take measures so that juvenile justice centers become “safe places” again and to immediately cover the structural positions that are budgeted. It also claims to improve working conditions and training for workers who join and deal with complex profiles of young people who are admitted to these centers.