Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma01/10/2017 00:00
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Inma Benito, the outgoing president of the Majorca Hoteliers Federation, said after the wage negotiations' agreement was arrived at last week that there was no disunity within the federation. Her statement seemed surprising as it was known that not all hoteliers were happy with the size of the wage rise. And sure enough, the division has surfaced.

Susana de Juan, president of the Cala S'Illot-Cala Morela hoteliers association, says that there are differences because of hotel groups' financial circumstances. The federation has pressed agreement through fear that negotiations undertaken later could be more complex and bring the risk of industrial conflict next summer.

Smaller hotel groups in various resorts believe that there is a before and after in the federation. They currently don't feel properly represented and hope that the next president will re-establish order and guidelines that will avoid the "abuse". They are basically saying that Benito looked more after the interests of the larger hoteliers than the smaller ones.

The 17% increase over four years will have a negative effect on these smaller chains' financial situations, so the acting president, Gabriel Llobera, takes over with this division on his hands. Although the wage agreement was given a large majority backing at the federation's assembly on Thursday, Llobera concedes that it is impossible to achieve unanimity.  

The restaurants and nightlife association, as has already been reported, haven't signed the agreement, which applies to the hospitality sector as a whole. The Pimem small to medium-sized businesses association believes that companies in its sector are being ignored, being unappreciated and being humiliated. Its president, Jordi Mora, says that there was a lack of transparency in the negotiations.

And the agreement, as has been observed, took some by surprise. In Minorca, the Ashome hoteliers association is criticising the speed with which it was made. Ashome representatives and counterparts from Ibiza and Formentera attended a meeting in Palma early last week and found that the agreement had been struck without their requests having been taken into account.  Pablo Casals, the president of Ashome, says that the Minorcan hoteliers have been left without room to manoeuvre.

Meanwhile, the employment ministry calculates that the wage agreement plus other aspects will result in the creation of more than 5,000 jobs between 2018 and 2021. It further estimates that after fours of the agreement, salaries in the sector will have risen - in global terms - by 514 million euros.