A study that will be carried out by the Ministry of Employment and Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands will measure for the first time the mental health of hospitality workers, including chambermaids, in order to obtain conclusions that allow the Executive to implement measures to improve the health of these employees.
The Minister of Employment and Tourism, Jéssica de León, has reported this in the plenary session of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, in which she appeared at the request of Nueva Canarias to talk about the measures that are being adopted to improve the working conditions and safety in the employment of chambermaids.
She explained that, in addition, a second study of ergonomic and psychosocial conditions is being carried out in the hotel sector of the Canary Islands, which has not been done since 2015, and that for this purpose 228 hotels will be visited, covering all the islands, which will represent a significant sample of the working population of the sector and will include five main areas: reception and administration staff, cooks and kitchen assistants, waiters, chambermaids and maintenance.
The objective of this study, she continued, is to assess the preventive organizations that companies have, the ergonomic and psychosocial risk assessments of each functional area and the preventive measures that are adopted and thus program future actions with greater knowledge of the situation.
Pioneering research
She also stressed that within this research "the psychological well-being, the mental health well-being of the workers in the sector" will be measured for the first time.
The Minister has also referred to the fact that this year a program of action in hospitality will be developed through monitoring and advice on the organization and preventive actions with special attention to overexertion in small hotels and tourist apartments.
Given that work accidents due to overexertion are the most common in the hotel sector, an action has been established in which, through a protocol prepared for this purpose, the technical staff of the ergonomics and psychosociology program of the Canarian Institute for Occupational Safety is visiting companies with the highest number of this type of accidents to monitor the ergonomic and psychosocial risk assessments, as well as the preventive measures that are being implemented.
In this way, the Ministry will extract "names and surnames" of companies that are carrying out bad practices and there they are going to do prevention and, if necessary, also notify the Labor Inspectorate to sanction them, she warned.
"I want the full weight of the law to fall on all offenders in the tourism industry", said the Minister, who admitted that within the hospitality sector workers are exposed to ergonomic and psychosocial risks, such as repetitive work, handling of loads and forced patterns, which can cause health problems, all related to musculoskeletal disorders.
All this translates into 30% of work accidents in the sector being due to overexertion, De León explained, who reported that the Government will approve for the first time in its history, despite being in force since 1980, a plan for tourism inspection and that in addition to the tourism inspections, the inspectors of the Canarian Institute for Occupational Safety will be added with the aim of improving working conditions and in terms of prevention.
The deputy of Nueva Canarias Natalia Santana, promoter of the appearance, pointed out that the 14,000 chambermaids in the Canary Islands are "the face of an invisible and precarious sector", while asking the Executive to monitor good working conditions, which allows them to retire early.
Santana, who has denied that she wants to demonize the tourism sector or companies, has warned that many have to go to work medicated to withstand the overload they experience every day.
The PSOE deputy Gustavo Santana has indicated that the working environment in the hotel sector is not easy, where chambermaids are vetoed for exercising their union activism, and has demanded that the Minister "stop selling smoke" and change the rules to force hotels to put up adjustable beds and mechanical carts.
The deputy of CC Jana González, in favor of early retirement and the recognition of occupational diseases, has assured that real and effective measures are urgently needed to improve the working conditions of chambermaids and for this purpose labor inspections in the hotel industry are necessary.
The Vox deputy Paula Jover has pointed out that the "buoyant" figures in the tourism sector, in reference to income and the number of visitors, have not managed to make the benefits redound to those who work in the tourism sector, including chambermaids, who in her opinion should be able to retire early.
The deputy of the Gomera Socialist Group Jesús Ramos has said that he hopes that the working conditions of chambermaids will improve in a short space of time and has admitted that "something is being done wrong" when there is so much precariousness among these workers in the islands, where the tourism sector generates 22,000 million euros per year.
The deputy of the Independent Herreña Group Raúl Acosta has warned that only 5% of the chambermaids, who feel overexploited and with mental illnesses, manage to retire in their position because "the others leave exhausted".
The PP deputy Mónica Muñoz has added that the working conditions of chambermaids "should not have a political sign but consensus", while insisting that her party advocates establishing the measures that are necessary to improve the working conditions of these workers.
