CCOO and UGT endorse the imposition of Catalan on university professors

CCOO and UGT have truncated the first attempt to eliminate the requirement to accredit a minimum level of Catalan to access a teaching position in the universities of Catalonia.

The representatives of these unions on the Personnel Board of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) opposed last Wednesday a CSIF proposal that requested the “suspension of the requirement of the C1 level of Catalan in all competitions for affected civil servants.” due to the new regulations, in force at that university center since last April.

According to what sources present at the vote revealed to EL MUNDO, the initiative was defeated by six votes in favor, 13 against and two abstentions.. It was supported by the representatives of the proposing union, CSIF, and the members of CCOO and UGT avoided doing so, who, thus, aligned themselves with the seven representatives of the independence union Intersindical-CSC.

It defends the overturned resolution that “the requirement of the C1 level of Catalan is an unacceptable alteration of the conditions of the competitions” to access a university professor position “which can have an impact on the recruitment of talent and the teaching quality of the institution.”. It emphasizes that “both teachers and students have the legal right to express themselves in either of the two official languages.”. And, therefore, the requirement for a specific linguistic accreditation is an unjustifiable asymmetry that, in addition, can harm the coexistence between the two co-official languages.

Furthermore, the CSIF highlights the “lack of a detailed legal justification on the interpretation of current legislation”, which has led to the requirement of accrediting the C1 level of Catalan to apply for a teaching position.. The union highlights that “the uncertainty regarding the legal certainty of the linguistic regulations” makes the requirement “susceptible to challenge.”

A decree approved in 2010, at the last meeting of the Government of socialist José Montilla, obliges teachers who obtain a permanent position or who want to be promoted to prove their competence in the Catalan language by providing the C1 level.. The legal requirement existed, but the university centers never strictly complied with the regulations generated by the last tripartite. Until now.

In June 2022, under pressure from the Generalitat Government, Catalan universities committed to “regularize” all teachers and began to approve regulations in which they committed to requiring C1 from teachers who, since then, have been pressured with requirements to demonstrate that they have this linguistic accreditation.

The requirement of a minimum level of Catalan for teachers is not the only objective of the Generalitat, currently governed alone by ERC, which plans to impose 80% of classes in this language. In June 2021, the rectors of the eight public university centers in Catalonia signed a document in which they committed to “guarantee Catalan as the vehicular language of the universities, setting the figure of a minimum of 80% of Catalan in the teaching of each degree, postgraduate or master's degree as a milestone to achieve.