Two months into negotiations for the revised hospitality industry collective bargaining agreement, the employers and unions are further apart than ever. Tuesday's meeting not only failed to produce any progress, it also widened the gap between the two sides, the hoteliers accusing union representatives of "absolute inaction" and the unions responding that employers' proposals are a step backwards and "are pushing us toward conflict".
The unions' priorities were salary increases and shorter working hours but discussions stalled on points related to flexible working conditions and work organisation raised by the employers. These drew an angry rejection from the UGT and CCOO. Both unions have been planning to make the traditional May Day rally a mass event to exert pressure and are already working on more actions if there is no breakthrough in the talks. The schedule for the negotiations is for them to be concluded no later than May 27, but the distance between the two sides is making a satisfactory outcome increasingly unlikely. And this raises the possibility of the tourism season in Mallorca and the Balearics being disrupted by industrial action.
The general secretary of UGT-Services, José García Relucio, said after Tuesday's meeting that what the employers were proposing was not feasible. "No union would sign that." He argued that the proposals represent a "deregulation" of the previous collective bargaining agreement and a rollback of workers' acquired rights. "It seems that all they are trying to do is dynamite the negotiating table."
Issues that the unions find unacceptable relate to: an increase in part-time contracts so that employees can work in multiple workplaces within the same company and with different responsibilities; an alteration to arrangements for employees with 'fijo discontinuo' contracts; absenteeism conditions; and the elimination of an obligation for workload measurement. For Relucio, this latter issue was "the straw that broke the camel's back". "If it's a strategy to drag us into conflict, they will succeed."
The executive vice president of the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation, María José Aguiló, made clear that the debate on salary increases is subordinate to other issues. "We are very clear that we are not going to talk about salary increases until we have evaluated the costs of the measures they are putting on the table." These measures include the union proposal for a 35-hour working week; "unrealistic" in Aguiló's view.
The agreement affects around 180,000 workers in the hotel, bar/restaurant and nightlife sectors. The employers' representatives at the negotiating table come from all three sectors, but the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation is the lead voice on the employers' side. Its president, Javier Vich, said last weekend that a union demand for a 19% salary increase over three years was "unacceptable".
1 comment
To be able to write a comment, you have to be registered and logged in
The most interesting number in this article is 180,000. "The agreement affects around 180,000 workers in the hotel, bar/restaurant and nightlife sectors." That's a massive 20% of Mallorca's population who work in the tourism and hospitality sector. So through their protests, the anti-tourist protestors who are on Saturday going to be holding a noisy and threatening march through Palma's centre will affect 1 in 5 Mallorcan families if, as they want, tourists stop coming to the island and employers close down. In fact, statistically-speaking, it would be fair to say that in the march on Saturday must be members of those tourism-employed families so they are taking action against their own families' interests. Dumb and dumber.