The Minister of Tourism and Employment, Jéssica de León, announced this Tuesday that the Government of the Canary Islands will study for the first time the ergonomic and psychosocial conditions of workers in the non-hotel sector of the islands, starting with the tourist apartments that total 678 establishments and concentrate 20% of the accommodation places in the archipelago.
The Canary Islands Institute for Occupational Safety (Icasel), attached to the Ministry of Tourism and Employment, will coordinate the field work, the results of which will be integrated into the future Canary Islands Tourism Planning Law.
“The Canary Islands will be a pioneer in guaranteeing decent working conditions throughout its tourism ecosystem”, said de León, who pointed out that the intention is “to expand the study in a second phase to the rest of the non-hotel accommodation: villas, vacation homes, rural houses and emblematic houses”.
The counselor recalled that the non-hotel offer concentrates 54% of the accommodation places on the islands, “so it is essential to shed light on the safety and health conditions in this modality and prevent risks, detecting possible improvements such as the incorporation of adjustable beds or the use of motorized carts”.
This report will complement the second study of ergonomic and psychosocial conditions that the Government of the Canary Islands carried out in 121 establishments in the hotel sector, of three, four and five stars of the islands, and which showed that 88% of these accommodations have personnel for prevention in occupational hazards, but one in three has not received basic training in this regard.
The analysis also found that only one in three hotels has carried out time studies for the group of room service workers and less than half have established a maximum number of rooms per type of cleaning. Similarly, it is detected that only 12% have implemented adjustable beds.
