Education sets minimum services for September teacher strikes

The Department of Education, Vocational Training, Physical Activity and Sports of the Government of the Canary Islands has established the minimum services that must be fulfilled by civil servant and contracted teaching staff of non-university public centers during the strikes called for September 24 and 25, 2026. The decision is formalized in the Order of September 21, 2026, published in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands no. 192, of September 24, 2026, in its section III of Other Resolutions (p. 35249). The calls affect the entirety of the network of public teaching centers dependent on the Department.

The strike notices were submitted on September 14, 2026, by two trade union organizations: Docentes de Canarias-INSUCAN and the Sindicato Independiente Nacional de Desarrollo e Innovación. Both affect the civil servant teaching staff and contracted teaching staff dependent on the regional department. The Department justifies the order based on the essential nature of the public educational service, linked to the fundamental right to education under Article 27 of the Spanish Constitution, and the need to reconcile its maintenance with the exercise of the right to strike recognized in Article 28.2 of the Magna Carta.

Two calls with different schedules

The order distinguishes between two strikes with different temporal scopes:

• Docentes de Canarias-INSUCAN: strike on September 24, 2026, from 00:00 to 24:00 hours.
• Sindicato Independiente Nacional de Desarrollo e Innovación: strike on September 24 and 25, 2026, from 00:00 hours on the 24th until 24:00 hours on the 25th.

In the second case, the strike encompasses the entirety of the working day, both teaching and non-teaching hours, including afternoon and night shifts for centers that have them, under the modality of total cessation of activity without occupation of the workplace. The minimum services will be applied throughout the entirety of the indicated strike days.

The minimums, center by center

The annex of the order details the minimum staff required according to the type of center:

• Secondary Education Institutes (IES), Integrated Vocational Training Centers (CIFP), Compulsory Education Centers (CEO), Agricultural Vocational Training Institute (IFPA), Adult Education Centers (CEPA), Distance Adult Education Centers (CEAD), Maritime-Fisheries Vocational Training Polytechnic Institute (IFPMP), Art Schools (EA), Schools of Art and Higher Design (EASD) and Online Education Center (CEL): 1 management position and 1 teacher for every 9 groups.
• Official Language Schools and Music Conservatories: 1 management position.
• Early Childhood and Primary Centers, Rural School Collectives and Attached Classrooms: in centers with up to 6 groups, 1 management position and 1 teacher; in centers with more than 6 groups, 1 management position and 1 teacher for every 6 groups.
• Ordinary school residences: 1 management position and 25% of the teaching staff.
• Specific school residences and Special Education Centers: 1 management position and 50% of the teaching staff.
• Teacher centers: the director.

The center administrations will nominally determine the management position and the teaching staff who must carry out these minimum services, seeking to reach a consensus among the workers.

Legal basis and appeal process

The order is based on Royal Legislative Decree 5/2015, which recognizes the right to strike with a guarantee of maintaining essential services; Decree 24/1987, establishing the minimum services of the Canarian Administration; and Decree 89/1988, declaring essential services regarding education in non-university public centers. It also invokes doctrine from the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court, as well as a ruling from the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, and cites Decree 84/2024, which approves the Organic Regulation of the Department, and Law 14/1990, on the Legal Regime of the Public Administrations of the Canary Islands. The order bears the signature of the counselor Hipólito Alejandro Suárez Nuez and is referred to the Department of Presidency, Public Administrations, Justice and Security.

Against the order, which ends the administrative route, a contentious-administrative appeal may be filed before the Contentious-Administrative Section of the Court of First Instance of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria within two months from the day following its publication, or an optional appeal for reversal before the Department within one month. An appeal for the protection of fundamental rights is also possible.

The regulation directly affects all students and teaching staff of non-university public education in the Archipelago, who will see teaching activities reduced to the established minimums for two days. The publication in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands on the same day as the start of the first strike leaves centers with a very narrow margin to designate the personnel who will cover essential services.

Source: Official Gazette of the Canary Islands, no. 192, of September 24, 2026, section III Other Resolutions, page 35249 (official reference: boc-a-2026-192-3329).