During Monday, April 20, we have maintained several contacts and have obtained some information about the educational services, in relation to the compensations for the school canteens of the public network and the campaign of leisure activities that has been hinted from the government. We give you the information available.
There are no clear predictions for the summer season campaign at this time
On 20 April a meeting took place with the Director General of youth, Laia Girós, and the Director of the Agència Catalana de Juventud, Cesc Poch. The meeting was attended by the Confederation, ACCAC and ACELLEC, through the president, Pere Mulero, and the Vice-President, Oriol Carbonell. The aim of the meeting was to obtain clear forecasts for the summer season campaign, which in the last days has appeared in the media through affirmations made from various instances of the government, according to which there will be a greater number of activities available to reach many more children and young people.
However, during the meeting we did not obtain any definitive answers. Those responsible for the field of youth of the government were limited to collect the opinion of the representatives of the three employers who attended it and did not offer any relevant information. At this time it is unknown when it will be possible to initiate leisure activities, what limitations will have for safety and health reasons, and it is not even known if there will be any extraordinary financing to deploy them. From this point of view, the meeting was unproductive.
ACELLEC and other employers re-joined the support claims for the sector, paying special attention to the holiday camps, and claiming that they need to know as soon as possible about any concrete directives so that they can make decisions about the summer activities (camps, camps, colonies, etc.).
In this sense, the three organisations have decided, aside from the provisions that the Government can take, to prepare a joint proposal to organise the summer season campaign, which includes grants for funding from the government, subsidies or scholarships for families with economic needs, specific preventive measures and a defined timetable. At this time we are already working on a basic document. When it is minimally agreed, we will make it available to all members of the ACELLEC so that you have knowledge of them and can contribute to it. This could be the beginning of next week.
Meanwhile, we recommend associated companies that regularly carry out summer activity campaigns that make theoretical projections of their business offers so that they can be activated when necessary, but remain standby while there are no clear indications by the health authorities and the Government’s competent departments.
At the same time, ACELLEC will attempt to establish some kind of contact with the committees of health experts who work on measures to combat the Covid-19, in order to transfer the specificities of educational leisure activities in order that they take them into account when anticipating the process of de-confinement.
Education will establish a calculation formula for the compensations of the canteens
Some schools are already sending companies the communication of suspension of the school canteen contract. The next step is for the contractor to claim the amounts corresponding to suspension in the concept of compensation. However, we recommend that associated companies do not yet make this claim. We can expect forthcoming information that the Department of Education is committed to sending the contracting bodies where a specific model or formula will be established for the calculation of the payments.
During the previous two weeks, we have made specific and quantified indications to the Department of Education in order to take them into account when establishing this system. Although we do not know yet how it will be specified, we have moved the impression that have been well received and that will be essential for its proposal. As soon as we have knowledge that the proposal is sent to schools we will let you know.
In principle, the amounts to be claimed for the compensation correspond to the usual price of the menu, minus the part that the company has saved for the closure of the schools and the measures associated with it. When we have knowledge of the concrete formula we propose a basic model of communication or invoice to do so. We hope it will be in the next days, but we can not specify date because it does not depend on us.
On the other hand, the Department of Education is also studying at present the procedure that will continue to compensate the companies contracted through the AMPA. Also, as soon as we have information we will send it to you.
In any case, we offer the following recommendations:
- Please wait apply for compensation until you have the calculation model
- Please pay, in the terms and manner that you may be able to, a salary supplement for your contracted workers for Public centre services, in order to obtain 100% of your salary (70% of ERTO plus 30% salary supplement). These amounts will form part of the compensation.
- Make the salary supplement for the period of contract suspension (that is, while schools are closed).
- The services that you have contracted through the AMPA must, in principle, follow the same economic guidelines as the rest of the public centres, but with a different procedure. Please wait to pay for paid supplements to employees to which education establishes this procedure.
We will keep you informed of all developments that are produced in relation to all these issues.
Submitted by: Carolina Fleix-Wright is an ICF Ambassador for Spain and future ICF Advisory Board Member (2020-2023). She directs “English Summer”. She lives in Tarrogona, Spain