The Minister of Tourism and Employment, Jéssica de León, the General Director of Labor, José Ramón Rodríguez, the Deputy Minister of Employment, Isabel León, and the Director of the Canarian Employment Service (SCE), Dunnia Rodríguez, met this Wednesday with union and business representatives from the tourism sector, with the aim of "collaborating in a coordinated manner" on different issues related to "the work activity of the hotel sector in the Canary Islands", which in the first half of 2023 showed a figure of "2,049 work accidents with sick leave, 99% (2,044) of a mild nature, 4 serious and 1 fatal".
This is the first meeting of the Canary Islands Hotel Industry Technical Table, after it was last convened in 2015. At the meeting, the Government, employers and unions have agreed to "promote", among other initiatives, "the Second Study on Ergonomic and Psychosocial conditions in the hotel sector", which has not been updated for eight years, which will evaluate "228 hotels to develop a catalog of occupational hazards and prevention measures".
"228 hotels will be evaluated to develop a catalog of occupational hazards and prevention measures"
In addition, the Minister, Jéssica de León, announced that "an agreement will be signed with the Labor Inspectorate to detect irregularities" and the study that determines "the working hours of the group of chambermaids" will be reviewed.
At the same time, the Ministry of Tourism and Employment will launch a "awareness campaign" between now and the end of the year to remind the population of “the importance of returning home after the working day and of labor well-being”. It will be carried out in collaboration with employers, unions and the media.
"Remind the population of the importance of returning home after the working day and of labor well-being”
De León took advantage of the meeting to announce that this Thursday she will meet with the acting Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism of the Government of Spain, Héctor Gómez, to whom she will raise, among other issues, the "early retirement of chambermaids", which “is a demand that the group has been making for a long time, but that we must analyze together with the Central Government.”
She also reported that she plans to meet soon with the acting Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, in order to "assess the situation of the sector and establish a collaboration between the regional and state executive branches."
Measures to reverse occupational accidents
In the first half of 2023, "569 more work accidents" were recorded in the hotel sector in the Canary Islands than in the same period of the previous year, which represents an "increase of 27%". Faced with this, the Minister pledged to implement "two measures that contribute to reducing workplace accidents." As a first action, "labor inspections" will be reinforced in the last period of the year and, on the other hand, "an extensive and extraordinary campaign will be carried out, in conjunction with unions and employers, to reverse occupational accident rates."
The latest data recorded by the Canarian Institute for Occupational Safety (ICASEL) indicate that during the first half of 2023 there have been "2,049 work accidents with sick leave in the hotel sector", of which "99% were mild" (2,044). There were also "four serious and one fatal." Among these, chambermaids suffered "most of the accidents, 37.7%, with a total of 774."
By provinces, Las Palmas concentrated "61.25% of the accidents (1,255)", compared to "38.8% in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (794)". Likewise, among the main causes of accidents are "sick leave due to physical overexertion (83.6%), a blow from a fall (22.9%), a cut (16.3%) or trips against a stationary object."
It should be noted that a total of "34 reports (26 women and 8 men) of closed occupational diseases with sick leave" have been reported, of which "18 were diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS)", which represents "52.9% of all occupational diseases" that were diagnosed in the hotel sector in the first semester.
“We are going to promote, within the framework of the Spanish Strategy for Safety and Health at Work 2023-2027, all the mechanisms that allow us to analyze the situation of the sector in a more efficient way, in order to specify the measures that we must implement to reverse occupational accident rates in the Canary Islands,” she concluded.
