Staffing level increases needed for the hotel sector

The unions made this point at a meeting with Balearic government and Majorca Hotelier Federation representatives on Monday. This was a meeting of a working party that is considering various aspects of working in the hospitality sector, one of which is the establishment of a valid tool to evaluate the effects of working.

The director general for employment, Isabel Castro, didn't deny that there are problems but observed that accident rates and absenteeism have been falling. The unions maintained that economic crisis created heavier workloads and that these have continued, despite economic improvement and hotel modernisation and increases in their star ratings.

Maria Frontera, the president of the hoteliers federation, felt that the meeting was positive and agreed that there need to be effective means for improving the quality of work. Businesspeople, she remarked, are willing to undertake a study in order to adapt staffing levels to business productivity.

Antonio Copote of the UGT noted that labour abuses and excessive working demands are most common in hotel receptions and kitchens and among waiters and room maids. Separate from hotels are the restaurants, which did not sign up to the hospitality sector collective bargaining agreement last September. Copote suggested that abuse is rampant in the restaurant sector.